SCIENCE BULLETIN, No. 20. 



in such a manner the ocular evidence is irrefutable and the Inspector's 

 position vastly strengthened. Moreover, the directors of a company are able 

 to prove to their shareholders how the deterioration in the quality of their 

 factory's produce and the financial loss thus brought about takes place. 

 Such a loss would be cut out and recovered by the building of a new factory, 

 situated in a more convenient and sanitary position, on up-to-date lines. 

 The cost of building and equipping at the present time may seem hard to 

 bear, but the ultimate cost is less than the loss, year in and year out, of 

 several shillings per cwt. on the selling price of the butter manufactured. 

 Lifting the quality of- the butter by a few points means obtaining bigger 

 returns. Take, for instance, a factory with an output of 35 tons of butter 

 per week. If an extra 3s. per cwt. is obtained, it means over 100 per 

 week extra revenue, and it does not take many years at that rate to pay 

 for a modern, well-equipped factory. This lesson has been proved and 

 demonstrated by the Manning River Co-operative Dairy Company. The 

 quality of the butter now put on the market by that company is so improved 

 as to be incomparable with that manufactured under the old conditions. It 

 was proved at the same time that a saving of some 14 per week in labour 

 was effected. In the modern, well-equipped factory nine men, working 

 ordinary time, handled a much greater output than was done under the old 

 conditions with thirteen men, often earning overtime rates of pay. 



The manufacture of butter may be described as a fermentative industry, 

 the flavour being due co the absorption by the fat of certain aromatic 

 substances produced during the acid fermentation of the lactose of the milk 

 or cream by Bac^rium lactis acidi and related organisms. Most of the 

 abnormal flavours are due to the replacement of the desirable acid-forming 

 bacteria with other types of micro-organisms. Hence, to control the flavour 

 of the butter the butter-maker must control the bacteria in the cream that 

 cause the ripening. 



As it is freshly drawn from the normal udder 'of the healthy cow, milk 

 contains bacteria in greater or lesser numbers, the initial contamination 

 taking place in the milk cistern and larger milk ducts of the udder. These 

 organisms appear to cause no change in the market value of the milk, or in 

 the persons drinking the milk. If, however, the cow is suffering from disease 

 in the udder, such as tuberculosis, mammitis or other inflammatory trouble, 

 the milk may contain many millions of the specific bacteria at the time when 

 it is drawn. The extent of all subsequent contamination is dependent upon 

 the manner and care with which the milk is produced and handled. The 

 atmosphere, utensils, milking machines, arid the milkers themselves add 

 many bacteria ; their future development is largely dependent upon the 

 temperature at which the milk is kept. 



Most micro-organisms find in milk an ideal culture medium for their 

 growth. The food elements such as protein and milk sugar, being in liquid 

 form, are most easily attacked, and it is the breaking clown of these, by 

 bacterial enzymes formed, which cause most of the undesirable changes 



