36 MODERN DAIRY PRACTICE. 



We saw in the preceding what a microscopic examina- 

 tion of such milk would reveal. It is perhaps not possible 

 to express through exact figures how such milk compares 

 with milk from well-conducted farms as regards the quan- 

 tity of impurities which they contain, but by a very simple 

 examination everybody possessing a microscope a very 

 cheap one will do may satisfy himself that the difference 

 is very large.* In the milk produced on farms where 

 strict cleanliness is observed, the contaminating particles 

 are not only far less numerous, but also of another 

 kind than in the milk from poorly-kept stables. It may 

 of course happen that considerable quantities of fodder 

 particles may be found in the former kind of milk; but 

 with a few exceptions these have not passed through the 

 animals, and are therefore not so well suited to being hot- 

 beds for the development of bacteria as the numerous 

 manure particles in the latter kind of milk. The milk 

 from a poorly-kept farm also contains a much larger num- 

 ber of spores of bacteria than milk from a well-kept farm. 

 In- extreme cases it is possible to tell these two kinds of 

 milk from one another without a microscopic examination, 

 since the more viscous and slimy milk from poorly-kept 

 farms will pass through a fine strainer much more slowly 

 than milk produced on carefully-conducted farms. 



Importance of Keeping Cows Clean. The importance 

 of carefully carding, brushing, and cleaning the cows is 



* Renk (Munchner Med. Wochenschr. 1891, Nos. 6 and 7) found 

 the following quantities of solid impurities in the nrilk from different 

 farms around Halle, viz., 2.9, 7.3, 7.5, 9.4, 17.9, 37.2 milligrams per 

 liter (quart) of milk. He says that the high content of impurities in 

 Halle milk is due to " insufficient inspection, the feeding of roots, 

 and the use of peat for bedding." W. 



