1OJ PRACTICAL DAIRY BACTERIOLOGY 



Not a few farmers in the vicinity of our larger cities have 

 recognized the possibility of furnishing certified milk and ob- 

 taining a slightly higher price for their product. It is not diffi- 

 cult for any farm to produce such changes in its dairy methods 

 as will enable it to obtain the certificate of such a Board. The 

 necessary precautions are not great or expensive, and inasmuch 

 as a somewhat higher price may be obtained the plan is a very 

 promising one and is being more or less adopted by up-to-date 

 dairymen. Whether this plan of certifying milk in our larger 

 cities is to develop into a more general method of procedure or 

 whether some more radically different method of furnishing the 

 city with milk is to be adopted cannot yet be stated. 



The Production of Certified Milk. While ordinary dairies are 

 unable with the present price of milk^to adopt all of the precau- 

 tions suggested and advised above, there is no farm where 

 certain changes cannot be made with so little expense as hardly 

 to raise the price of production, but at the same time sufficient 

 to produce a marked improvement in the milk. The production 

 of certified milk does not necessarily involve great outlay, but 

 may be done with fair success upon any good farm. It may be 

 useful, therefore, to enumerate the simpler precautions which 

 are most useful in improving the grade of the milk, the adop- 

 tion of which will usually enable a dairyman to furnish certified 

 milk. The following precautions are arranged according to 

 their importance : 



1. Veterinary inspection of the herd and testing all animals 

 with tuberculin, followed by the rejection of all reacting 

 animals. 



2. Washing and sterilizing milk vessels and all dairy utensils. 

 This should be done more thoroughly than is common on the 

 ordinary farm. 



3. The cleaning of the cows, clipping hair on the udders and 

 hindquarters, the moistening of the udder and underside of the 

 flanks before milking. 



