Healthfulness of Skimmed Milk 143 



cows is concerned, official inspection of the herds 

 is undoubtedly a greater safeguard than dependence 

 upon pasteurization or sterilization ; and so far as 

 the liability of transmission of other diseases is con- 

 cerned, the milkman who is careless in regard to 

 the cleansing of his utensils would quite as likely be 

 careless in the pasteurization or sterilization process, 

 so that reliability of the milkman is an important 

 factor in the purity of the milk supply, no matter 

 what other precautions are taken. 



Bad flavors in milk. Milk may be unfit for con- 

 sumption for reasons other than the presence of 

 dirt or infection with bacterial germs. The cow 

 herself is often responsible for bad flavors in milk. 

 When lactation is far advanced the milk often has 

 a disagreeable salty taste. In extreme cases it may 

 even be described as acrid or bitter. While there 

 is nothing particularly unwholesome about such milk, 

 its bad flavor makes it unfit for food, and if the 

 cow is within two months of calving, she should be 

 allowed to go dry at once. If the time before calv- 

 ing is longer than this, the bad flavor may often be 

 remedied by taking care that the cow has plenty of 

 succulent food, as roots or silage, and particularly 

 that the proportion of dry, fibrous food is reduced 

 to a minimum. 



Digestive disorders of any sort in the cow are 

 frequently accompanied by strong flavors in the 

 milk. These flavors are not to be attributed to the 

 food, but to the bad condition of the animal, and 

 they normally tend to disappear when the digestive 



