39 



odor, but it is urged more particularly for checking the growth of 

 bacteria. If the temperature is lowered sufficiently, the develop- 

 ment of bacteria will be checked — almost stopped. By lowering 

 the temperature to 45° satisfactory results may be obtained, but 

 it is safest to cool it to 40° if possible. Every person supply- 

 ing a city market with milk should have ice, or else cool spring 

 water, and take precautions in this respect. All authorities im- 

 press the importance of straining the milk outside the stable and 

 cooling it as quickly as possible. Don't let it stand until the cows 

 are turned out ; they can wait better than the milk. 



In conclusion, — milk, leaving the udder almost in a spray, 

 comes in contact with a large quantity of bacteria-laden air. This 

 milk is of a temperature most congenial to bacterial growth, hence 

 the first half hour of its life is the critical one. The way it is 

 treated during that time determines its keeping qualities, and to 

 a considerable extent its flavor. No wonder the best teachers say 

 that sour milk is due to careless handling. As a matter of theory 

 milk cared for as we have recommended will keep a long time, 

 amply sufficient to have it reach any consumer in good condition, and 

 the following of these suggestions will add many hours to its life. 

 As a matter of practice many farmers take these precautions and 

 are never troubled with sour milk. A German experimenter had 

 a cow kept in a badly ventilated barn and milked without having 

 its udder cleaned, and the milk, kept at G0°, coagulated in fifty 

 hours. The milk from the same cow drawn in an open field, after 

 the hands of the milker and the cow's udder had been cleansed, kept, 

 at the same temperature, eighty-eight hours. Hence we have both 

 theory and practice to back up these ideas. What one farmer has 

 done another can do. With proper precautions there would be 

 no renewal of the great trouble which annually exists in Boston 

 and elsewhere during the " heated term "on account of sour milk. 



