2O2 AGRICULTURAL BACTERIOLOGY. 



The source from which this troublesome organism is derived 

 has been, at least in part, determined. The bacillus is an in- 

 habitant of water, and the origin of the trouble may be origi- 

 nally some water supply infected with the bacillus. Its con- 

 tinuance in the dairy has been in one case certainly traced to 

 the dairy water supply. It has been found living and grow- 

 ing in the water used for washing the milk vessels or for sub- 

 merging them to cool the milk ; and through such a source 

 of contamination the bacillus gets into the milk. The trouble 

 is found to disappear if the milk vessels are once thoroughly 

 sterilized by live steam and then placed in fresh, pure water. 

 Disinfecting the water with permanganate of potash is some- 

 times sufficient to allay the trouble. These facts teach that 

 upon the occasion of such an infection the water supply and 

 the water tanks must be the first place of suspicion. The 

 bacilli are not common enough in nature to be a very frequent 

 source of trouble, and if a dairy is infested with the bacteria 

 it generally means that the water tanks and the cans have be- 

 come filled with the organisms. Thorough sterilization of the 

 milk vessels and of the tanks in which the dairy water stands 

 for cooling the milk, will be the most efficacious means of re- 

 moving the trouble. A second fact of importance to be re- 

 membered is that the water tank of a central creamery may 

 be the source of distribution to a large dairy community. If, 

 as occurs in some places, the milk cans, after standing in the 

 water tank at the creamery for a day, are then given directly 

 back to the farmers without sterilization, a slimy milk infection, 

 starting in a single farm in the district, is pretty sure to be 

 distributed presently, through the creamery, to the whole ter- 

 ritory furnishing that creamery with milk. 



It is not at all likely that this particular organism is always 

 the cause of slimy milk, for, among the many species having this 

 power, some others occur under conditions which render it 

 probable that they may produce a dairy infection. In Switzcr- 



