SANITARY MILK PRODUCTION 171 



barn at milking time they are at the pails, cans and strainers, and in the 

 milk house they hover about the vats, coolers, separators, bottlers, etc., 

 falling into the milk and polluting it with germs washed from their bodies. 

 Moreover, theylight on the clean glass and tinware, soiling it with their 

 defecations and the regurgitations from their crops. To control or 

 even to minimize the pest is most difficult. There is usually enough 

 manure and straw about the stables for flies to breed in myriads. 

 Probably it helps to reduce the number of flies to keep the barns swept, 

 the yards clean and to have the manure removed daily or at least at weekly 

 intervals. The use of large fly traps such as the Hodges and the Minne- 

 sota results in the capture of many of the insects and tends to reduce 

 them in number. Some dairymen try to keep out the flies by darkening 

 the stable and leaving a small open window for the flies to get out, the 

 milking being done by artificial light. In the flyless dairy of the United 

 States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md., the stables are light but they 

 are very carefully screened. Flies are brought into the barn on the cows; 

 so some easy way of brushing the insects off must be adopted. One in 

 common use is to have the cows come in, through a covered passage way 

 from which gunny sacks are hung so that they brush the cows' backs. 

 In the milk house and in city milk plants careful screening combined 

 with the use of fly traps and sticky fly paper is the best way to keep down 

 the flies. The use of poison fly paper and of fly poisons of various sorts 

 in the dairy is not advisable because they may cause accidents and be- 

 cause the poisoned flies drop everywhere. 



Essentials of Clean Milk Production. It must be apparent that with 

 so many sources of milk pollution deserving attention, it is a difficult 

 matter to reduce dairy sanitation to such simple terms that the pre- 

 cautions deemed essential will seem reasonable to, and be adopted by, 

 the ordinary dairyman. Probably most authorities would agree that 

 wiping the cows' udders, milking with dry hands, the use of the small-top 

 pail, the thorough cleansing and sterilizing of utensils and the cooling 

 of the milk to below 50F. are all necessary to the production of clean 

 wholesome milk. 



The North System. C. E. North has evolved a system which at- 

 temps to bring the number of things to be done by the dairyman, in 

 producing clean milk, to a minimum and to interest him in the production 

 of such milk by paying extra for it. 



The North system is in operation at Homer, N. Y., at Sparks, Md., 

 and in other places. Briefly it is this. In the dairy district is established 

 a central station which in reality is a milk plant for the community. 

 It is well-lighted and ventilated, has waterproof floors, good drainage 

 and water supply. It is equipped with apparatus for washing and 

 sterilizing utensils, for cooling, bottling and refrigerating the milk, and 

 with a laboratory. There all the farmers' milking pails and all cans are 



