250 PRINCIPLES OF FARM PRACTICE 



Utensils. The best milk pail is one that will allow the 

 least amount of dirt to fall into the milk during the milking 

 process. There are several designs of small-top pails that are 

 good. Tests have shown that sixty per cent less dirt and 

 twenty-five to ninety per cent fewer bacteria enter the milk 

 when proper pails are used. Besides having a small top, the 

 milk pail should be so constructed as to have all the joints 

 perfectly smooth. Open spaces are almost impossible to 

 keep clean. 



To clean milk pails and the milk containers they should 

 first be dipped into cold water to rinse off the film of milk; 

 then washed, using a brush, with warm water and washing 

 powder; and finally rinsed with boiling water and, when pos- 

 sible, sterilized with live steam or placed in the sun to dry 

 where they will be free from dust. 



Cooling the milk. Under conditions favorable to their 

 growth bacteria multiply very rapidly. Some reproduce as 

 often as every half-hour. A small number, at this rate, 

 would increase to an enormous number in a few hours. Warm, 

 freshly drawn milk affords ideal conditions for the rapid 

 development of bacteria. For this reason it is important to 

 cool the milk as soon as possible after it is drawn, and to 

 keep it cool. Various means are employed for this purpose. 

 The best dairies use ice, but cold water is also effective. 

 The container should be set in a tank of cold water, prefer- 

 ably ice water, and the milk stirred at least every ten minutes 

 until the cooling process is complete; otherwise the center of 

 the mass of milk will remain warm for a long time. 



Tests as to the effect of cooling milk on its bacterial content 

 and on its curdling period have demonstrated the effective- 

 ness of the practice of keeping milk cool. When a sample 

 was kept at a temperature of 45 degs. F., the number of 



