DAIRY UTENSILS. 



263 



them. To these should be added a Fahrenheit's thermometer, which 

 should be suspended in a central part of the milk-house. Wood 

 is the material usually employed as a frame in which the thermometer 

 is set, but, even with the greatest care, wooden instruments are apt 

 occasionally to be damp, and to acquire a faint musty smell ; the 

 closest attention in scouring and scalding every time they have been 

 used is requisite, as the smallest drop of milk left in them, or the 

 least taint of acidity or mustiness, may spoil the next milk. A 

 metal thermometer-frame wi'J. be found more satisfactory, but man}' 

 disadvantages are avoided by using simply a plain glass thermometer 

 without frame or case. 



In some dairies, wooden vessels lined with lead are used. Wherever 



Fig. 57. The Dairy Supply Co.'s Sterilizing Apparatus. 



the size and shape of the utensil will admit, earthenware vessels 

 properly glazed, or glass utensils, will be least troublesome, and glass, 

 being so cheap, now places these latter within the means of most 

 dairy farmers ; but lead, copper, or brass iitensils, as well as earthen- 

 ware vessels glazed with lead, although found in many dairies, are 

 to a certain extent objectionable, for the acid contained in milk that 

 has been long exposed to the air forms an injurious compound with 

 these metals, and this, although perhaps not deleterious to any serious 



