FARM ANIMALS 189 



recently come into unusual prominence throughout 

 the country and thousands of them have been sold 

 for home use in small dairy herds. It has been 

 shown, however, by painful experience, that the 

 butter made from milk separated by hand separa- 

 tors on ordinary farms is usually of inferior grade 

 and this fact is partly due to the lack of attention 

 in cleaning the separator. If the hand separator 

 is not taken apart, thoroughly scoured, and steril- 

 ized after each using, it becomes simply an incu- 

 bator for bacteria, and the milk which is subse- 

 quently run through it becomes immediately con- 

 taminated and rendered more or less unfit for use. 

 The Care of Milk. As should be apparent from 

 the previous discussion, milk is the most suscepti- 

 ble of all human foods to various changes which 

 render it unsuitable for use either on account of 

 bad odors, bad flavors, souring or other bacterial 

 changes. The care of milk so as to prevent these 

 undesirable happenings is, therefore, one of the 

 most important parts of dairy science. In the 

 present discussion, however, it is impossible to go 

 into this in any detail and it is unnecessary to do so 

 on account of the fact that the subject of practical 

 dairying is really a technical one by itself and the 

 average farmer is through with the dairy business 

 as soon as the milk is produced. At any rate, he 

 is chiefly interested in its production rather than 

 its manufacture into a finished food product. One 

 point in the care of milk which particularly con- 

 cerns the farmer relates to its preservation in a 

 wholesome condition until delivered to the cream- 

 ery, or to patrons. He must also give heed to the 

 preservation of skim milk for feeding to calves and 

 to the proper ripening of cream for the manufacture 

 of butter at home. 



