No. 4.] FAR:\[ management. 73 



men make all kinds of foolish suggestions and requirements, 

 and ask too much at a time, — more than the farmer can rea- 

 sonably be expected to do. If thev would ask him to take 

 one step at a time, and send out men who knew what tliej 

 were talking about, I believe that our farmers would be ready 

 to take hold and work with them to better conditions. The 

 city man has his side of it, too, and is certainly entitled to 

 have good clean milk for his children. 



The CnAiRiiAN. I am a milk producer, and many of us 

 think that there is another side to this question, that the con- 

 sumers do not take the care of the milk they should after re- 

 ceiving it, but are always willing to throw the blame on the 

 producer. 



Mr. George W. Trult.. I woidd like to ask the morning 

 speaker how large a quantity of milk is a cubic centimeter, au<l 

 how the bacteriologists manage to count as high a nundier of 

 bacteria in that quantity as they tell us about. 



Professor Washburn. A cubic centimeter is about 15 

 drops, say half a teaspoonful. The bacteriologist mixes the 

 milk very carefully, so that every portion is like every other 

 portion, draws out one cubic centimeter, and puts it into a 

 thousand times that quantity of pure water, which has previ- 

 ously been boiled, to make it sterile. Then he mixes that thor- 

 oughly, takes one measure of it, and puts it into a thousand 

 times more pure water. This he mixes thoroughly again, 

 takes out one measure of it, and places that in a beaker dish, in 

 which there is a jelly-like substance, in which the germs can 

 grow. In forty-eight hours there will be some spots on the 

 jelly, each one being a cluster of bacteria, which gTCW from a 

 single bacteria in the mixture. Count these spots with the 

 naked eye and multiply that by the times diluted, and you can 

 approximate it. We cannot get it exactly right, but we can tell 

 the difference between 1,000 and 20,000 and between 20,000 

 and 50,000. 



Mr. Trull. Is any milk produced absolutely without 

 bacteria ? 



Professor Washburts^. It is practically impossible to draw 

 milk that will not have germs in it, because there are germs 

 livinc: in the udder and staying there from day to day. 



