CHAP. v. THE MANAGEMENT OF MILK. 301 



house are often traceable in the milk, and it is thought they get into 

 it by absorption ; this may be so, and will be so when the air is warmer 

 than the milk. It is a good thing to have cow-houses well ventilated, 

 and kept as clean as possible." l 



In the process of milking it should be borne in mind that the milk 

 first drawn from a cow is always thinner, and inferior in quality, to 

 that afterwards obtained, the richness of which increases progressively. 



It should also be recollected in the after process, that the portion 

 of cream rising first to the surface is richer in point of quality, and greater 

 in quantity, than that which is yielded in the second equal space of 

 time, and so of the rest ; the cream continually decreasing, and be- 

 coming thinner and poorer. This is due to the larger globules rising 

 first, the smaller remaining in the milk. If thick milk is diluted with 

 water, it will afford more cream than it would have yielded in its pure 

 state, though its quality will be inferior. 



Milk carried about in pails, or other vessels, and thus agitated and 

 partially cooled before it is poured into the milk-pans, never throws 

 up such good and plentiful cream as if it had been put into proper 

 vessels immediately after it came from the cow. 



From these fundamental facts several important inferences, some of 

 which have already been hinted at, as serving to direct the proceedings 

 of the dairy, may be deduced. 



1. It is evidently of much importance that the cows should be 

 milked as near to the dairy as possible, in order to prevent the neces- 

 sity of carrying and cooling the milk before it is put into the dishes ; 

 and as cows are much hurt by far driving, it must be a great advantage 

 on a dairy-farm, where the practice of house-feeding is not adopted, 

 to have the principal grass fields as near the dairy homesteads as 

 possible. 



2. The practice of putting the milk of all the cows of a large dairy 

 into one vessel, as it is milked, there to remain until the whole milking 

 is finished, before any part is put into the milk-pans, is highly in- 

 judicious, not only on account of the loss sustained by the agitation 

 and cooling, but also because it prevents the owner of the dairy from 

 distinguishing the good milk from the poor, and guiding him with 

 respect to the profit that he derives from each cow. A better practice, 

 therefore, is to have the milk drawn from each cow put separately, or to 

 have that from only two or three cows put into the creaming-pans as 

 soon as milked, without being mixed with any other. 



A small quantity of clear water, cold in summer, and warm in winter, 

 put into the bottom of a milk-pan, will facilitate the rising of the cream ; 

 some persons put in a very weak solution of carbonate of soda. 



8. If it is intended occasionally, or generally, to make butter of an 

 extra fine quality, the milk of all the cows that yield cream of a poor or 

 inferior quality should be rejected, and also the milk that is first drawn 

 from each cow. 



1 "The Farm and the Dairy," Sheldon, pp. 61, 62. 



