THE DAIRY. 207 



It should be remembered, also, that milk not only absorbs spores that quickly produce 

 acidity, but it also absorbs from the atmosphere spores of every other kind as well. Nor 

 does this characteristic of milk stop with absorbing living germs, for it takes in every odor 

 as well as the seeds of every ferment, that blows over its surface. It is the same, also, to a 

 great extent, with water, which soon becomes unfit for use if allowed to stand where it may 

 be contaminated by impure air; and if placed in a cellar where it is exposed to air charged 

 with the odors and spores of decaying vegetation, it soon smells and tastes like the foul, 

 fever-breeding air that envelops it. 



The London Milk Journal cites instances where milk that has stood a short time in the pres 

 ence of persons sick with typhoid fever, or been handled by parties before fully recovered 

 from the small-pox, spread these diseases as effectually as if the persons themselves had been 

 present. Scarlatina, measles, and other contagious diseases, have been spread in the same 

 way. The peculiar smell of a cellar is indelibly impressed upon all the butter made from the 

 milk standing in it. A few puffs from a pipe or a cigar will scent all the milk in the room, 

 and a smoking lamp will soon do the same. A pail of milk standing ten minutes where it 

 will take the scent of a strong smelling stable, or any .other offensive odor, will imbibe a taint 

 that will never leave it. A maker of gilt-edge butter objects to cooling warm milk in the 

 room where his milk stands for the cream to rise, because he says the odor escaping from the 

 new milk, while cooling, is taken in by the other milk, and retained to the injury of his 

 butter. This may seem like descending to little things, but it must be remembered that it is 

 the sum of little things that determines whether the products of the dairy are to be sold at 

 cost or below, or as a high-priced luxury. If milk is to be converted into an article of the 

 latter class, it must be handled and kept in clean and sweet vessels, and must stand in pure, 

 fresh air, such as would be desirable and healthy for people to breathe. 



For reasons already given, cellars that are used for milk setting should never have tur 

 nips, potatoes, apples, or anything stored in them that will emit the least odor, and the air 

 should be kept as pure and free from dampness as possible. 



Effect Of Thunder Storms on Milk. It is a fact known to almost every person 

 having any experience in the care of milk, that thunder storms will frequently cause sweet 

 milk to turn sour in a short time, especially if there seem to be certain atmospheric conditions 

 attending it, such as a superabundance of electricity. In order to prove whether there was 

 any foundation for this opinion so prevalent among dairymen, Mr. M. W. lies tried the fol 

 lowing experiment, the result of which we clip from the Journal of Chemistry. He says: 



&quot;I took skimmed morning s milk, filled an eudiometer tube (300 c. c.), and introduced 

 100 c. c. pure oxygen gas; then by the use of an ordinary battery and a small Euhmkorf coil, 

 sparks of electricity were made to pass through the oxygen for five minutes. The current 

 was then broken, and the tube shaken up and allowed to stand for five minutes. The milk 

 does not appear quite as opaque, and shows a noticeable acid reaction. On continuing the 

 current for five minutes longer making ten minutes in all the milk curdles very per 

 ceptibly, and shows a decided acid reaction. The contents of the tube, on standing for twenty 

 minutes, has reached the consistency of ordinary sour milk or bonny clabber. &quot; 



The cause of the rapid souring of milk in thunder storms is due to the oxygen being 

 converted into ozone, the increased acidity being due to the formation of lactic acid, and 

 doubtless some acetic acid. By means of the ozone these acids cause the casein contained in 

 the milk to be precipitated. 



Butter as an Article Of Food. As an article of diet, butter was used at an early 

 period of the world s history, it being made from the milk of sheep and goats. The wander 

 ing tribes that were accustomed to take long journeys, doubtless took with them a supply of 

 milk in skins, of which their bottles were made, and the agitation of the milk in travel- 



