DAIRY FACTORY PREMISES. 39 



timber was stored in shocks, and where the butter-boxes were put together, 

 adjoined the butter-making room, and an exposure made in the current of 

 air flowing between the door from this rcom to the outlet on the opposite side 

 of the churn room also showed the presei.ce of mould organisms in numbers, 

 while the plates exposed on either side of this draught showed little or no 

 growth thus demonstrating how the spores were being carried right through 

 the building and out the other side by the wind, after having been disturbed 

 in the box room, perhaps while the infected timber was being shifted or 

 while the different pieces were being nailed together. Possibly the force 

 of the wind off" the river was sufficient to lift the spores off the colonies growing 

 on the wood, without the latter being moved at. all. The boxes, after being 

 filled with butter, were carried into the cold room and stacked almost to the 

 height of the ceiling. At the time of examination this room was almost 

 filled. In putting the boxes on the tiers, mould spores would be dislodged, and 

 they were in the air at the time the exposure was made, with the result shown 

 in D5. The manager of the factory was notified as soon as possible of what 

 was taking place, and advised to close or re-arrange the. connection between 

 the timber storeroom and the manufacturing portions of the building, and to 

 have the cold room emptied as soon as could be arranged so as to thoroughly 

 fumigate it or spray with formalin. He was also advised to destroy the 

 moulds then on the butter-box timber before making up more boxes. It is 

 understood these suggestions have been given effect to. 



This is a striking illustration of how easily the newest and best planned 

 dairy produce factory premises may be infected, and shows what an amount 

 of watchfulness and care is necessary to keep everything connected with 

 the manufacture of dairy produce free from sources of contamination. The 

 factory manager must be ever on guard against re-infection. 



Water used in Manufacturing Butter. In the present example the 

 plate D6 indicates a water of unexceptionable purity, judging by the 

 small bacteriological count. This is in marked contrast to other waters 

 examined, notably in Examples Nos. 2 and 3 described in the previous 

 articles. In the present case the water is obtained from a spring near the 

 surface, the current draining rapidly into an excavated reservoir through a 

 bed of water-worn coarse quartz gravel and sand. This reservoir is 

 situated about half a mile from the factory, to which the water is brought 

 through galvanised iron pipes by pumping. Good though this water is, 

 it might be still further improved by filtering, in order to free it from 

 sedimentary matter which will, as time goes on, accumulate more and more 

 in such a length of pipe line. 



While on the subject of butter-wash waters, it may be of interest to 

 mention the case of another butter factory which had been in trouble for 

 some time through the bad keeping quality of the product turned out. 

 This is one of the several cases recently investigated and remedied to the 

 satisfaction of the manufacturing company. Samples of water (taken from 



