222 AGRICULTURAL BACTERIOLOGY. 



made and readily handled, and it is perfectly feasible thus to 

 treat a very large quantity of milk for general distribution. 

 Particularly has this treatment been useful in preparing cream 

 for shipment. Cream thus treated will keep several days and 

 may readily be shipped for a thousand miles to find a pur- 

 chaser. At the present time large amounts of cream are thus 

 marketed in this country. Pasteurization is thus a practical 

 success and, according to the present outlook, it promises to 

 displace the process of sterilization. While sterilization is 

 theoretically better, since it destroys all bacteria, pasteuriza- 

 tion is the more practical method of treatment. It seems as 

 if an extension of pasteurization might make it possible, in the 

 future, to handle this extremely perishable product in such a 

 way as to avoid most of the troublesome phenomena due to 

 bacteria growth, and to remove all dangers of disease distri- 

 bution. Pasteurization seems at present to be the most prom- 

 ising method of treating milk for nearly all purposes. 



The individual farmer can hardly apply this treatment to 

 his milk, inasmuch as it demands special apparatus and can be 

 very much better performed in a large central station. The 

 milk industry is one in which far better results can be attained 

 by a concentration of interests than by keeping them sepa- 

 rated into numerous isolated farms. A central organization 

 can easily and cheaply collect milk, and properly treat it so as 

 to produce the best product. Such a central organization, 

 which will first use the centrifugal force to remove the dirt, 

 and then pasteurize its milk, will furnish a product as nearly 

 perfect as seems to be possible with our present knowledge. 



Within recent years a new method of handling and ship- 

 ping milk has been adopted in some of the northern coun- 

 tries. The milk is frozen into ice, and in this form it may be 

 transported to any distance without trouble. Upon being sub- 

 sequently thawed out it is practically as good as fresh milk. 

 This industry is quite new and its practical value can not yet 

 be determined. 



