THE MILK CONTRACTOR 249 



It allows 40 points for equipment and 60 points for methods. This 

 estimate of the relative importance of the two is instructive and should be 

 taken to heart by all managers of milk plants. There are too many who 

 feel that a fine building equipped with expensive apparatus will turn out a 

 clean safe milk without any particular effort on their part to insure its 

 doing so. The fact is that unless the building is kept scrupulously neat 

 and the apparatus perfectly clean and sterile and unless the milk is han- 

 dled properly it is likely to be the worse for the treatment it receives. The 

 apparatus needs particular attention ; it is somewhat complicated and the 

 milk naturally sticks to it so that unless the utmost vigilance is exercised 

 it is bound to become unclean. Milk picks up germs from whatever it 

 comes into touch, so that dirty apparatus seeds it with bacteria. Undue 

 exposure to the air, especially if it is dusty, does likewise. If in addition 

 the milk is not promptly handled and cooled, the bacteria have an excel- 

 lent opportunity to grow and spoil the milk. Elaborate equipment does 

 not necessarily mean excellent or even good milk, as many health officers 

 have learned to their sorrow, from having to wrestle with big expensive 

 plants that owing to indifferent management turn out a mediocre product. 

 The contractor who expects his milk plant to run itself is foredoomed to 

 failure. As the committee on Milk Plant Inspection of the International 

 Association of Dairy and Milk Inspectors puts it, " attractive, well- 

 equipped plants are no indication of the quality of milk that is being sold ; 

 the milk going through the plant must be of good quality to begin with 

 and must be handled properly." 



Under equipment, the card allows 21 points for building and con- 

 struction and 15 points for apparatus. For the building reinforced-con- 

 crete construction is excellent. The walls and ceilings should preferably 

 be of tile or brick; they should be sheathed, made dust proof and painted 

 a light color if these materials are not used. The window space should be 

 at least 10 per cent, and ought to be 20 per cent, of the floor space. Pro- 

 vision should be made for screening the windows and outside doors; the 

 latter should have automatic closing devices. Throughout the plant the 

 ceilings and walls should be smooth, tight and cleanable. Window sills, 

 projecting window frames, door frames and other places where dust can 

 settle are objectionable. As in handling the milk, more or less is spilled 

 on the floors and as in cleaning much water is flowed over them it is im- 

 portant that cement or some other impervious material should be used in 

 their construction. Iron plates set flush in cement give good satisfaction. 

 The plates should be used wherever cans are rolled about much. Care 

 should be exercised to keep the floors free from cracks because the wash- 

 ings accumulate sour milk and filth in them; sometimes considerable 

 drainage escapes through them and creates beneath the floor a rather 

 extensive stinking area. Floors should be sloped from the walls to a drain 

 in the center which should be trapped and carried to the public sewer, a 



