HOW TO PRODUCE CLEAN MILK 171 



but this is of very small importance compared to the dirt that 

 gets in from the dirty cow or from the milker who is careless as to 

 his personal habits. 



278. Flavors and odors.— Garlic is particularly apt to give 

 milk a bad flavor if eaten in any quantity. Large quantities of 

 cabbage or turnips may do it. Sometimes it is something else 

 which the animals have eaten in the pasture. Milk will absorb 

 odors and sometimes it gets contaminated while standing in the 

 barn. Spraying the cows immediately before milking is occasion- 

 ally responsible. Where tainted milk occurs the farmer must 

 check up on what his animals are eating and the other possibilities 

 in an endeavor to locate the trouble. To guard against flavors and 

 odors getting into the milk after it is drawn, the milk should be 

 removed from the stable at once. It will help to have the milk- 

 room separated from the barn by a passage so that the milkroom 

 itself will always be clean and free from barn odors. 



Feeds that might flavor the milk through the cow should be 

 fed only and at once after milking. The flavor will then not get 

 into the milk. Cows may be pastured on wild onion or garlic 

 infested pastures if they can be removed from such a pasture four 

 hours before milking. 



279. Milking machines.— With the increasing difficulty of 

 getting men who like to milk, or those that will do a thorough 

 job, many owners of good-sized herds are wondering whether they 

 should install a milking machine. Many factors are to be con- 

 sidered, and perhaps we can help a man make a decision by 

 pointing out some of the things that have been found out about 

 milking machines by those who have used them. 



280. Labor saved by machine. — In the first place, does a 

 milking machine save labor? Mr. H. E. Babcock gave a direct 

 answer to this question in the Jan. 27, 1923, number of the "Ameri- 

 can Agriculturist." In summarizing the experience on one of his 

 own farms he wrote: " Based on our experience to date, it would 

 seem that one man using a milking machine can milk and care for 

 eighteen cows three times a day about as comfortably as he can 

 milk nine head by hand.*' Others have given similar evidence. 



