REDUCTION OF BACTERIAL CONTAMINATION. 49 



the cows are taken only for a few moments for the purpose 

 of milking. A special milking room is, therefore, advan- 

 tageous from the standpoint of cleanliness, and it is probably 

 also useful in. its influences upon the cow. Cows are creat- 

 ures of habit, and soon learn that they go into the milking 

 room to be milked and respond accordingly. 



The Barnyard. It is desirable that the place .where the 

 manure is stored should be removed at some distance from 

 the milking stall, several hundred feet if possible, and no 

 manure or stagnant water should be allowed in the vicinity 

 of the barn. Not only will the manure be a source of bac- 

 teria which will inevitably be carried back and forth from 

 the manure heaps to the milking room, but it will also be a 

 breeding place of flies which are themselves a great nuisance 

 in the dairy. One fly falling into the pail has been shown to 

 be capable of introducing 250,000 bacteria into the milk. 



Employees. Especial care should be exercised in regard 

 to the condition of those who do the milking or have anything 

 to do with the handling of the milk. It is very desirable that 

 especial clothing should be used during the milking, and 

 many of the high class dairies furnish their milkmen with 

 white clothing which is carefully washed and steamed, some- 

 times each day, and must be worn by each milker when he 

 enters the milking stall. That the milker should carefully 

 wash his hands, arms, face and beard before entering the 

 milking stall should be a matter of course, although this is a 

 habit which only recent years has emphasized, and is rarely 

 followed in ordinary dairies. Special care should be taken 

 to exclude from the milking and from the handling of the 

 milk any employee that has any form of contagious disease. 

 As will be seen in a later chapter, there have been numerous 

 instances .where typhoid fever, diphtheria, scarlet fever, and 

 possibly other contagious diseases have been transmitted 

 through the milk to the consumer from some person suffer- 

 ing or recovering from such diseases. The better dairies 

 4 



