MODERN DAIRYING 



For some reason, the milk that is fresh from 

 the cow is particularly susceptible to the bac- 

 teria, and their development in milk proceeds 

 with remarkable rapidity. At the Maryland 

 station, many tests have been made. In a 

 single cubic centimeter of milk, say about one- 

 fourth of a teaspoonful, in one test where the 

 milk was first set in water standing at sixty 

 degrees Fahrenheit, held for fifteen hours and 

 then cooled until the milk stood at the same 

 temperature, 7,000 bacteria were found in the 

 cubic centimeter of the fresh milk, 2,500,000 

 at the end of fifteen hours, 69,000,000 at the 

 end of twenty-four hours, and 300,000,000 at 

 the end of thirty-nine hours, suggesting their 

 marvelous reproductive powers. 



The effect of the bacteria upon the milk 

 is to cause it to sour, to make it less whole- 

 some for invalids and children, and, often, to 

 impart to it a disagreeable flavor. While there 

 are bacteria known to be beneficent and aidful 

 to man, there can be no question that those 

 which so rapidly develop in milk carry death 

 and disease. If disease does not follow the use 

 of impure milk, it is because the system into 

 which it is taken is strong enough to resist. 



193 



