THE TIME OF COOLING. 305 



Such a cool-bath is used in the cow-room only in 

 summer, when the heat is so great that it is difficult to 

 keep the milk cool in the kitchen. The cool-bath in the 

 cow-room is considered as only an auxiliary to that in 

 the kitchen, and to be used only in case of necessity. 

 The milk-kettles are hung by their handles, and let 

 down by means of a crank. When the platform is not 

 in use it is taken away from the cool-bath, and the cover 

 is let down and kept closed. 



The milk is allowed to remain in the cool-bath until 

 the froth has disappeared, and there is no difference in 

 temperature between the water and the milk. The 

 milk of one milking must give place for the next, so 

 that it will be changed twice daily, morning and even- 

 ing. A very great importance vs, everywhere in the 

 Dutch dairies, attached to this rapid cooling of the 

 milk, because it is known by experience that it is thus 

 greatly protected from turning sour.* 



The milk, when properly cooled, is brought to the 

 milk-cellar, where it is immediately poured out of 

 the milk-kettles into vessels designed to receive it. 

 Wooden bowls or pans, or high earthen pots, are used 

 for holding it. The pans and pots are set on the table, 

 and a small ladder, or hand-barrow, is laid on them, on 

 which is placed the strainer, when the milk is poured 

 from the kettles. The wooden milk-pans are of several 

 forms, generally made of ash or of linden, and oval. 

 They are, on an average, three and a half feet long, and 

 half a foot broad, more or less ; but their dimensions 

 vary. 



* It will be perceived that the arrangement for cooling the milk before 

 setting in the pans, in the Dutch dairies, is very elaborate. I have fol- 

 lowed the original in translating the above, though the practice in Hol- 

 land differs widely from our own in this respect, and from that recom- 

 mended in the preceding pages. The point may be worthy of careful 

 experiment. — Translator. 



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