138 CITY MILK SUPPLY 



construction, wood is commonly used but they may be of brick, ce- 

 ment or masonry. Small dairies having but few cows and delivering 

 milk in bulk often have wood frame milk houses of but a single room 

 with wooden floors and tanks. They, and all other dairy houses, should 

 be well-lighted, well-ventilated and should be completely screened to 

 keep out flies and other insects. They should have well-fitting doors 

 that should be kept closed in order to keep out cats, hens and rats whose 

 droppings make sanitary milk production impossible. Within, the houses 

 should have shelves whereon the cans and other utensils can be kept 

 inverted and without, there should be a sunning rack for airing the tin- 

 ware. If cans of milk are cooled with water in tanks it should stand well 

 above the level of the milk in the can and the milk should be mixed with 

 a clean stirrer till brought to near the desired temperature when the covers 

 should be put on the cans. Water in the tanks should be kept clean and 

 covers for the tanks are recommended. Warm milk should not be mixed 

 with cold milk nor new milk with old. Milk is often injured by the use 

 of unclean or sour cloths to wipe the cans or other utensils. These 

 towels should either be washed carefully and dried quickly in the sun, 

 or else should be of such cheap material that they can be thrown away 

 after being once used. 



For dairies having 25 cows a 10 by 20-ft. three-room milk house is 

 suitable. The floor should be of concrete and should be rounded at the 

 walls and corners to facilitate cleaning and should be sloped gently to a 

 drain in the middle. The walls should be of cement plaster on metal 

 lathing to the windows, above which they may be of plaster or of matched 

 stuff painted white preferably with waterproof enamel. The windows 

 should be flush with the walls. The boiler room, containing the boiler, 

 coal bins and workbench is placed as far as possible from the milk-han- 

 dling room in order to protect it from coal dust and ashes. There should 

 be two doors to the boiler room, one opening outside and the other to the 

 washroom. 



The washroom should be supplied with hot and cold water and should 

 be equipped with a sink, bottle washer, bottle rack and can racks. There 

 must be apparatus for sterilizing utensils. For small farms Ayres's device 

 which is described in Farmers' Bulletin No. 748 of the U. S. Department 

 of Agriculture will suffice but on the larger dairy farms sterilizing appa- 

 ratus such as is used for bottles and cans in city milk plants, is needed. 

 The bottle cases should be kept in this room. Besides the door to the 

 boiler room there should be one opening outside and one to the milk- 

 handling room; the milk-handling room should contain the cooler, sepa- 

 rator, concrete storage tanks and ice chest if there is one. 



If milk is bottled or butter is made at the dairy a 16 by 30-ft. four- 

 room dairy house is required. At one end should be placed the receiving 

 room where milk is weighed and tested. It is then put through a 



