120 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



bottom and side, or one completely filled with solder. The 

 three more common forms are the Gurler, the Stadtmiiller 

 and the hooded pails. The first two are much alike in that 

 the streams from the teats fall upon surfaces of cheese cloth 

 and absorbent cotton, held by metal collars in a frame which 

 covers the pail top. The milk is strained into instead of 

 out of the pail, and little or no impurity can pass so efiect- 

 ive a strainer. The hooded pail differs from the ordinary 

 simply in that a metal hood covers most of the top. It is 

 so held during milking that very little can fall in from the 

 cow's body, yet the milking proceeds as usual. At first 

 sight every milker raises the objection to all these pails that 

 they are impracticable, that the opening is too small, etc. 

 Yet the fact — stubborn things are facts — that they have 

 been in successful use for many years in many dairies, and 

 that after a day or two's ])ractice they are as readily used as 

 is the ordinary pail, shows that this notion is grounded in 

 prejudice. The cost of the hooded pail is but little more 

 than that of the ordinary pail, Avhile the cost of the covered 

 pail is perhaps tAvice that of the ordinary pail. The bac- 

 terial content of the milk drawn into a covered pail as com- 

 pared with the same milk drawn into the ordinary pail is 

 very small, and its suspended dirt is nil. No argument 

 need be -advanced as to the desirability of doing away with 

 seams in the milk pail ; therein milk residues normally lurk, 

 no matter how thoroughly cleansed the pail may have been, 

 which make the seams breeding-places for bacteria. 



9. It is not much of a chore to slip on a cleanly white 

 suit before milking; it is, however, quite a task to keep 

 them cleanly by frequent washings. No small part of the 

 bacterial infection of milk is derived from the person and 

 clothes of the milker. 



10. A large share of the palpable dirt of milk falls into 

 the pail during milking. A few seconds spent in dusting 

 off the cow, as it were, minimizes this greatly, and does no 

 conceivable harm. A damp cloth is to be preferred for this 

 purpose. 



11. The first few streams from each teat contain very 

 little fat but very many bacteria. They work their way up 



