CITY MILK SUPPLY. d4D 



ill tbe water aud taken up with the morniDg's milk for the traiu. It is 

 required that tlic eaus, before forwarding;, be filled, and the bungs 

 driven down firmly on the milk. This point of complete tilling is 

 strongly insisted on by dealers, in order to prevention of injurious agi- 

 tation of the milk during transportation. 



In like manner with the condensed-milk companies, the Illinois Con- 

 densing Company, of Elgin, Illinois, is very i^recise in its rules for the 

 guidance of parties furnishing it milk, fixing the limit of temperature 

 of springs at different seasons of the year, &(i. Its printed regulations 

 include the following particulars : The milk must be drawn from the 

 cow in the most cleanly manner, and strained through wire strainers 

 into the cans, which are then to be placed, with covers removed, in a vat 

 of cold water deep enough to come up to the height of the milk in the 

 cans, and holding fully three times the quantity of v»-ater that there is 

 of milk to be cooled. The milk is to be occasionally stirred while cool- 

 ing. In summer, or in warm weather in spring and fall, the bath 

 is "to be spring-water, not over 52^ in temperature, the stream constantly 

 flowing in at the bottom of the vat^ and out at the top, in order to carry 

 off the warmed water. The milk is to be reduced within 45 minutes to 

 a temperature below 08°. Night's and morning's milk must be sepa- 

 rately cooled before mixture. 



Mr. Benjamin Cox, of Elgin, writes that stirring the milk while cool- 

 ing is generally advocated and practiced there by shippers to Chicago, 

 although a few object to the stirring. The cooling- vat should have two 

 compartments, one for night's milk, the other for morning's milk. Slats 

 an inch in thickness are nailed at the bottom in order that the water 

 may circulate under the cans. If no spring is accessible, cooling at the 

 well is substituted, which method requires more care and labor. In this 

 case, while the milk is cooling, fresh water is pumped so as to flow down 

 the side of the vat to the bottom, afterward passing out over the top of 

 the vat. The temperature of the milk should be brought down to 58°. 

 No use is made of patent coolers, and seldom of ice, but the Chicago 

 dealers use ice freely after milk is received by them. In carrying to the 

 railroad-station the milk is covered with blankets, and, if the weather 

 is hot, the one next the cans is wet with cold water. 



Mr. A. D. Smith, of Danby, Vermont, two hundred and twenty-three 

 miles from New York, writes to the same general effect ; but in respect 

 to maintenance of temperature during extreme hot weather in convey- 

 ing milk to the train, he says that the practice is to put ice around the 

 cans in the wagon, and some place a piece of ice in the milk. The car- 

 rying is timed so as to allow as little detention at the station as possi- 

 ble. The dairy-farms of that section lie on hill-slopes, and are supplied 

 with cool, permanent springs. Two-inch plank is used for the vats. 

 Most of the dairymen now have ice-houses, often combined with the 

 milk-houses, the lower story for milk and the upper for ice. The rail- 

 road has recently erected large ice-houses for supply of cars, at all 

 lioints of considerable shipment. In past years cheese has been the 

 leading dairy specialty of that region. A superior quality has been 

 maintained, and consequently the highest market-prices received. The 

 milk business which has grown up of late has had a beneficial effect 

 toward preserving uniformity of prices. 



The managers of the Piedmont Association, of Washington Citj^ ad- 

 vise shippers that the temperature of the flowing bath should not be 

 over 540, and that no ice should be allowed to touch the cans or be 

 placed in the milk, as such practices, though they may seem convenient 

 for deliveries at the train, tend to more rapid change of the milk at 11 



