2G Dairy Bacteriology. 



Cleaning dairy utensils. The thorough cleaning of all 

 dairy apparatus that in any way conies in contact with the 

 milk is one of the most fundamental and important problems 

 in dairying. All such apparatus should be so constructed 

 as to permit of easy cleaning. Tinware, preferably of the 

 pressed variety, gives the best surface for this purpose and 

 is best suited for the handling of milk. 



Milk vessels should never be allowed to become dry when 

 dirty, for dried particles of milk residue are extremely diffi- 

 cult to remove. In cleaning dairy utensils they should 

 first be rinsed in lukewarm instead of hot water, so as to 

 remove organic matter without coagulating the milk. 

 Then wash thoroughly in hot water, using soap or weak 

 alkali. A borax solution is sometimes recommended for 

 cleaning bottles. Strong alkalies should not be used. 

 After washing rinse thorough!}' in clean hot water. If 

 steam is available, as it always is in creameries, cans and 

 pails should be turned over jet for a few moments. While 

 a momentary exposure will not suffice to completely ster- 

 ilize such a vessel, yet many bacteria are killed in even a 

 short exposure, and the cans dry more thoroughly and 

 quickly when heated by steam. 



Not only should the greatest care be paid to the condi- 

 tion of the cans and milk-pails, but all dippers, strainers, 

 and other utensils that come in contact with the milk 

 must be kept equally clean. Cloth strainers, unless attended 

 to, are objectionable, for the fine mesh of the cloth retains 

 so much moisture that they become a veritable hot-bed of 

 bacterial life, unless they are daily boiled or steamed. 



Germ content of milk utensils. Naturally the number 

 of bacteria found in different milk utensils after they have 

 received their regular cleaning will be subject to great 



