SUSCEPTIBILITY OF MILK TO ODORS. 83 



of. I never saw but one of the cheeses after thej went to 

 market, and that was very rich, soft and buttery, but it had 

 an odor about it tliat was not pleasant. How it came tliere I 

 cannot tell. But I am satisfied that what Mr. Lewis has said 

 in regard to milk is true, that it is a difiicult thing to have 

 everything in perfect order. I have heard many say that we 

 should never milk our milk into a wooden pail, for the reason 

 that has been given. I have been saying to my friend here 

 (Mr. Rowell) who takes milk to Boston, that I think a wooden 

 stopple is a l)ad thing to put in a milk-can, for the reason that 

 when it is cleansed and exposed to the sun, the heat opens the 

 chinks in the stopple, and then, when the milk goes into it, 

 the germs to which he has referred, get into the cracks, which 

 close over them and hold them so that they cannot be washed 

 out. Therefore, in the ftictory with which I am connected, I 

 do not allow any wooden stopples to be used in the cans. 

 The cans are tin, and the stopples are tin, also. 



Mr. Lewis has thrown out one suo-o-estiou that I think a 

 very good one, and that is, that the syphons which conduct 

 the whey from the vats should be open. It looks very rational 

 to me that they should be constructed in that way, from the 

 fact that it is very difiicult to get at them to cleans^ them 

 thoroughly, if they are close tubes. I believe that if every 

 j)recaution is taken with the milk, and everything at the factory 

 is attended to as he has suggested, we may increase the value 

 of our cheese very much indeed. And these suggestions are 

 very valuable to the whole dairying community ; not simply 

 to those who are connected with cheese-factories, but to every- 

 body who has anj'thiug to do with milk in any way. The 

 susceptibility of milk to odors is well known. I recollect 

 that our friend Mr. Root, of Barre, at our meeting last year, 

 spoke of placing birch branches on the side of his milk-house 

 to shield the milk from the sunshine, and he noticed, as soon 

 as the leaves of those branches were heated, that the* milk 

 caught the smell of the wilted leaves. Everything of this 

 kind is suggestive to us, that we need to have, from the time 

 the milk is drawn from the cow until the cheese is in the 

 market, everything in perfect order. 



But there is a difficulty with regard to this matter. The 

 milk is brought to the factory from various dairies, and from 



