38 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



towel, just before placing the pail under the cow, will do 

 more good than any other simi^le, inexpensive operation. The 

 towel should be wrung out after every two or three cows, and 

 the milker's hands wiped dry. 



The cow's tail is a terrible source of infection, generally 

 dirty, with the most dangerous kind of dirt. Constantly 

 switching, it keeps the dust of the region in motion, and it is 

 not infrequently thrust into the face of the milker or into a 

 pail of milk ; and when milk is scarce, I am afraid it is not 

 always thrown away after such a pollution. The tail should be 

 docked, clipped or daily washed, and held securely while 

 milking. 



Bedding of shavings or sawdust creates less dust, and dust 

 of a loss harmful nature, than hay or straw; and if care is 

 taken not to have any dry feed nio\'ed in the stable for an hour 

 before milking, and the floor is sprayed just before milking, 

 the amount of dust will be kept down precoptibly. 



A pail with as small an opening as can be conveniently 

 milked into will help a great deal. Strainers over the opening 

 do not do much good, except to keep out hairs and particles of 

 dirt, which, if the cow has l)een properly groomed, will not 

 be present. 



Milk commissions recommend that the milk room be located 

 at least fifty feet from the stable. I do not approve of this, as 

 it makes so much extra walking. I like a clean, well-lighted 

 little room, adjacent to the stable, with a tight wall between, 

 where the milk can be poured through a wall-funnel and run 

 into a cooler, without the milker or stable air entering the 

 milk room. The milk room should be sprinkled with clean 

 water or flooded with steam prior to milking. The milk should 

 be immediately cooled with ice water, and kept in ice water 

 or packed with chopped ice nntil consumed. Every utensil 

 coming in contact with milk should be rinsed until all the milk 

 is off, then scrubbed with hot water containing an approved 

 washing powder, again rinsed with clean water, and last 

 steamed in a steam closet or over a steam spout, or scalded 

 with boiling water. 



riies should be kept away from milk at all times, for after 

 coming from the barnyard they are likely to have dirty feet, 

 and they have been proved to be ready carriers of disease. 



