^ OF THB r 



UNIVERSITY 



Contamination of Milk. 35 



washed his hands in clean water, a pinch of vaseline on 

 his hands will enable him to obtain a firmer grasp, 

 and at the same time, any scales or dirt rubbed from the 

 teat would be held by the vaseline. Its healing effect on 

 chapped or sore teats would also be helpful. Freuden- 

 reich 1 reports some experiments in which the germ con- 

 tent of milk was reduced from several thousand to 200 

 where the hands were well rubbed with vaseline before 

 milking. Where the best of conditions are carried out 

 it is worth while to have the milker clothed in a suit 

 kept for this purpose, especially the upper portion of the 

 body. An outer garment could easily be slipped over 

 the regular working clothes. This garment should be 

 laundried at frequent intervals. 



40. Exclusion of dirt. A large amount of filth and 

 dirt can be prevented from falling into the milk. Card- 

 ing the udder and flanks to remove the loose hairs will 

 remove a considerable source of dirt. So long, however, 

 .as the coat of the animal is dry, dust particles with their 

 adherent bacteria are readily dislodged. If the coat of 

 the animal is moist, this deposition can be almost effect- 

 ually prevented. The surface should, however, not be 

 dripping wet. The objection has been urged by some 

 that washing the udder starts the milk secretion, and un- 

 less the animal is milked at once, the yield of milk is 

 diminished thereby. Eckles 2 has recently reported a 

 number of experiments from which he concludes that 

 when the animal is accustomed to the treatment, no no- 

 ticeable effect is produced either in amount of milk or 

 butter fat. 



In order to show the effect of dirt and dust, the experi- 

 ment described below teaches a valuable lesson. A cow 



ipreudenreich, Die Bakteriologie, p. 30. 

 * Eckles, Hoard's Dairyman, Aug. 8, 1898. 



