TAINTS IN MILK. 77 



pails or vessels of any kind that have the fewest seams and 

 the fewest sharp angles, because putrefactive milk will lodge 

 in all those seams and angles, unless boiling-hot water touches 

 them to destroy them. 



Those who have been conducting factories know the diffi- 

 cult}' of getting milk through the summer to the factory in a 

 perfect condition. Here is one of the starting-points of the 

 evils that we meet at the factory, and an evil that no amount 

 of skill there can overcome. Then there is another class of 

 taints. There are cow-stable taints, gentlemen. The most 

 frequent and inexcusable of all the taints that get into milk 

 are the cow-stable taints. You know we are famed in Her- 

 kimer County for making excellent cheese. A man who can 

 get a chance to nibble a Herkimer cheese thinks he has got 

 his tooth in about the right shape for a bite. Well, it is so 

 with our best cheese ; but we make cheese in Herkimer County 

 from which a starving mouse would turn with loathing, for 

 the reason that we taint the milk. I will tell you a little 

 story. No one will take exception. If I had the command 

 of the English language that my friend President Clark has, 

 or my friend Dr. Loring, I could give it to you in smooth and 

 polished terms, so that it would offend nobody, but I will 

 have to bring it out in plain English, I guess. There was a 

 man keeping a grocery store (well, it was a sort of variety 

 store) in the village of Frankfort several years ago, who pur- 

 chased a few cheeses from a man living in the town where I 

 live (Schuyler). I was in the village one day, and this 

 merchant called to me and said, "Lewis, come in here." I 

 went in, and found quite a number there who were discussing 

 something. The merchant says, "I have got some cheese 

 here that I bought of your neighbor," naming him, " and I 

 want to know what is the matter with it. None of us can 

 tell." Says he, "I want you to tell us" — supposing I knew 

 something about cheese. Well, I pretended I did. He cut 

 me off a thin slice, and I took it, rubbed it between my thumb 

 and finger just as you have seen cheese-buyers do (that, you 

 know, was to make them believe I knew something about 

 cheese; I did just as cheese-buyers do). It was rich and 

 salvy, and good to all appearance ; but when I smelt it, it 

 had a peculiar smell. I tasted it, and it had a peculiar taste. 



