202 MODERN DAIRY PRACTICE. 



Before leaving this subject it may be well to draw some 

 general conclusions from what has been treated in the pre- 

 ceding chapter conclusions which may deserve attention 

 also of others than dairymen. 



Skim-milk is used as an article of food in the house- 

 hold of nearly every family in this country, as well as in 

 many public institutions. We often find a prejudice 

 against separator skim-milk, however, and it is therefore 

 well to inquire whether or not this prejudice is well 

 grounded and in harmony with the facts given in the pre- 

 ceding. 



Separator skim-milk, as we have seen, differs from 

 gravity -process skim-milk in the following points : 



1. It has not been standing for a long time during 

 cream separation. 



2. It has lost the disagreeable macroscopic impurities of 

 the milk. 



3. It has fewer bacteria than the new milk from which 

 it is prepared at the time of separation, and will therefore 

 keep better. 



4. If treated in the proper manner after separation it 

 will also continue to remain comparatively free from 

 bacteria. 



Skim-milk separated by gravity process has, on the 

 other hand, the following shortcomings : 



1. It contains the greater portion of the disagreeable 

 filth with which it has been mixed in the barn and else- 

 where, since straining only frees the milk from the coarsest 

 impurities. 



2. It has been exposed to a cream separation lasting 

 twelve hours or more, when the bacteria in most dairies 

 have had an opportunity to develop. 



