CLEANLINESS IN BUTTER AND CHEESE FACTORIES. 117 



diminished as far as possible. Dark hiding-places under 

 staircases, etc., floor-drains which cannot be cleaned in 

 their whole length, and similar places where infection 

 might start up, ought not to be found. By painstaking 

 care in the planning and building of the factory we may 

 easily succeed in securing these conditions for keeping its 

 atmosphere pure and sweet. 



If a tight, smooth, somewhat slanting, acid-proof floor 

 built as directed has been secured, as abundant quantities 

 of water as may be wished for can safely be used in keeping 

 it clean. But how many creameries in our country fulfil 

 such conditions ? Many creameries have still wooden floors, 

 or, worse still (in, fortunately, but few creameries), there is 

 only a wooden floor under and around the churn while the 

 rest of the creamery has to do with a dirt floor. The in- 

 numerable chances of infection to which the delicate dairy 

 products are here exposed may be easily imagined. One 

 might believe that the picture drawn applied to a past era, 

 when dairying was still in its infancy; but such is unfortu- 

 nately not the case. I have even found a separator put in 

 a creamery with such a floor. Otherwise well-equipped 

 creameries also often leave much to be wished for as re- 

 gards the material and the grading of the floor. 



When the main creamery work is done, about 1 P.M. 

 every day, all machinery and vessels as well as the floors 

 are of course cleaned. The floor is not washed until all 

 other cleaning- is finished, when it is washed with 

 plenty of water and swept up with a broom. Here and 

 there, however, some water remains in holes, cracks, 

 etc., and if we enter the creamery an hour later we shall 

 find the air exceedingly moist, and perhaps pools of 

 water still left on the floors. These pools are often filled 



