CARK OF MII,K AND CREAM ON FARM 61 



prone also to disturb the healthfulness and the chemical and 

 physiological character of the milk and the products manu- 

 factured from it. 



It is obvious that, if milk and its products are to be free 

 from germs of infectious, or contagious human disease, the at- 

 tendants of the cows must be in healthy condition and must not 

 associate with persons suffering from such diseases. The use of 

 water for washing and rinsing milk utensils, that comes from a 

 polluted well, or similar source of infection, further jeopardizes 

 the safety of milk. 



Proper Feed and Water. Outside of the unfavorable effect 

 of moldy and decayed feed on the health of the cows, such feeds 

 are prone to impart to milk and its products undesirable flavors 

 characteristic of these defects. Thus moldy straw and hay, 

 moldy or sour silage and grain, decayed roots, etc., lend milk and 

 its products objectionable flavors which injure their market value. 



Certain feeds, when fed in excessive quantities, such as 

 silage, rye pasture, beets, turnips, cabbage, etc., give milk, cream 

 and butter, flavors which are not desired. The danger from 

 these feed flavors may be greatly minimized by feeding such 

 feeds, four to six hours before milking. 



Certain weeds, especially wild onions, garlic and leeks, im- 

 part to milk, cream and butter a most intense and obnoxious 

 onion flavor, which is very difficult to remove from these prod- 

 ucts. These flavors usually appear in milk and cream in Spring 

 and Fall, due to the cows having access to pastures which are 

 infested with these weeds, at a time when the pastures are not 

 sufficiently advanced, or have dried up too much, to satisfy the 

 cows, causing them to feed on anything green they can find. 

 The surest way to prevent this flavor in milk, cream and 

 butter is to completely eradicate these weeds from the pastures 

 by burning, plowing up and rotation of crops as recommended by 

 the U. S. Department of Agriculture Farmers' Bulletin 610. 

 When this is not possible the removal of the cows from such 

 pastures either to garlic-free pastures or to the barn-yard, from 

 4 to 6 hours before milking them, will greatly minimize this 

 objectionable flavor in milk, cream and butter. 



