272 MILK AND ITS HYGIENIC RELATIONS 



carries with it the necessary attention to the condition of the cows, 

 of the sheds, etc. ; also the need for great care and cleanliness both 

 in the milkers and in the methods of milking. 



Numerous precautions must be adopted in order to obtain a 

 milk having a bacterial content of not more than 10,000 per c.c. 

 when delivered to the customer. This figure, although it appears 

 to be so low as to be almost unattainable to the average farmer, 

 has been exceeded for prolonged periods by a number of farms in 

 the States. These farms have produced a milk, which, when tested 

 under circumstances corresponding as closely as possible to those 

 which would obtain at the time of the actual consumption of the 

 milk, showed a bacterial count of 2000 per c.c. or even occasionally 

 less. Only the main items requiring attention in order to produce 

 milk of this quality will be dealt with. 



The Milking-shed.A separate shed should be employed for 

 milking, or, if the cows are milked in the same shed as that in which 

 they are kept during the rest of the day, the bedding must not be 

 of straw or other dried herb : sawdust is preferable. Suitable 

 sheds are required, great cleanliness is necessary, and the sheds 

 should, as far as possible, be washed down a little while before 

 milking. Various arrangements are in use in regard to the position 

 occupied by the cows in the shed. It is perhaps more usual now- 

 adays for the cows to be arranged in two rows with their heads 

 facing one another, with space to admit of feeding between 

 the two rows of cows, as shown in the accompanying plate. The 

 floor slopes slightly both ways towards the trough, into which the 

 dirty water, faeces, etc., fall or are swept and pass along it out of 

 the shed 



The cows themselves must be free from disease, and for this 

 purpose should be tested every six months with tuberculin and 

 should be subjected at frequent intervals to careful veterinary 

 examination. The frequency of such examinations varies in 

 practice from once a week to once a month. The presence of 

 disease cannot however be absolutely excluded even under these 

 conditions. A cow which is tested with tuberculin in January 

 will not react to a fresh injection within the next six months, 

 although there is no protection whatever against the contraction 

 of tubercle within that period should the cow be in contact 

 with any source of this disease. During the six months' interval 

 she may for a long period easily excrete tubercle bacilli in the 

 milk which will pass undetected and be capable of giving rise to 

 tubercular disease. 1 



The cleanliness of the cows is also a most important point, and 

 the cow's hindquarters and udder should be cleansed before each 

 milking. There is some divergence of practice in regard to the 



1 Cp. Del6pine, j>. 252, and note on p. 252. 



