WHY CLEANLINESS IS NECESSARY 129 



flavours arise, gases, moulds, ferments, disease, and 

 the public still steadily refuse to eat filth and de- 

 composing matter in their food, just as the average 

 dairy farmer would refuse to eat a rotten egg. 



Writing in the " Creamery Patrons' Handbook," 

 Dr. H. L. Russell, Bacteriologist Wisconsin Experi- 

 mental Station, says 



" A serious source of contamination of milk 

 always comes from the animal herself. Drawn, as 

 the milk usually is, in an open pail, the opportunity 

 for entrance of loose hairs, particles of dung, fine 

 dust, and fodder particles could not well be 

 improved. Every hair of the animal's coat is laden 

 with dormant germ life. When the animal is 

 shedding her hair there is nothing to prevent the 

 falling of these germ-laden particles directly into 

 the milk. Even where the hair is not rubbed off, 

 the movements of the animal and milker are con- 

 stantly dislodging particles of fine dust that settle 

 in a continuous shower into the warm nutrient fluid 

 below. It may be thought that straining removes 

 this source of filth. So it does the filth which can 

 be seen, but not until the invisible living germ life 

 has been washed off into the fluid, there to set up 

 the various fermentations that it is capable of pro- 

 ducing. The kind of organisms that gain access to 

 the milk from this source is, generally speaking, 

 thoroughly undesirable. They are largely fecal 

 bacteria derived from decomposing animal dung. 

 In a large number of instances they are spore- 

 bearing bacteria that are very resistant, and the 



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