hamrshire: county 



'^'^ 1 o iijiO 



FARM BUREAU MONTHLY 



Published by the Hampshire County Farm Bureau 



PRICES 50 GENTS PER YEAR; $1.00 PER YEAR INCLUDING MEMBERSHIP IN FARM BUREAU 



Vol. 1 



Northampton, Mass., December 1915 



No. 4 



REGULATIONS OF THE BOARD 

 OF HEALTH OF SURROUNDING 

 VALLEY CITIES. GOVERNING 

 THE PRODUCTION AND HAND- 

 LING OF MILK 



The r.icre important features, and 

 those found in the lists of require- 

 ments of most of the cities, are as 

 follows: — 



A dairy that is producing milk lo 

 be sold in any of the local cities, 

 must be inspected, and, a permit 

 granted. The essential requirements 

 for securing a permit are, healthy, 

 animals, clean, well-ventilated, well- 

 lighted and well-drained stable, the 

 animals to be properly cared for as 

 to cleanliness, water, feed, bedding 

 etc. Certain of the cities insist that 

 the dairy plant shall score a given 

 number of points, although this is 

 not the general rule. Of the 100 

 points total perfect score, 60 are al- 

 lotted to methods and forty to quip- 

 ment. The features which the sev- 

 eral boards are attempting to secure 

 are, a milk room, with cement floor, 

 properly drained, if within city limits 

 It should have sewer connections, 

 smooth tight walls and ceiling, run- 

 ning hot and cold water for wash- 

 ing all utensils, and approved fa- 

 cilities for storing the day's supply 

 of milk at a temperature below 50 

 defrees F. The entire room and all 

 appliances shall at all times be kept 

 clean, and it must not be used for any 

 other purpose whatever and must be 

 free from stable odors, and well 

 screened from flies. No milk shall 

 be stored, cooled, mixed or strained 

 in any room occupied by horses, cows 

 or other animals, or for the storage 

 of manure or in any room used in 

 whole or in part for domestic or 

 sleeping purposes, unless such room 

 is esparated from other parts of the 

 building to the satisfaction of the 

 Board of Health. All milk utensils 

 must be either washed with boil- 

 ing water or sterilized with live 

 steam. No pigs shall be kept with- 

 in 50 feet of the stable or room in 

 which milk is produced, handled or 

 stored, and manure shall not be 

 stored in any room where cows are 

 kept or in any other manner liable 

 to contaminate the milk. No water 



closet or privy shall be located in 

 the above rooms or situated in such 

 a manner as to pollute the atmos- 

 phere of said rooms. 



As soon as possible after drawing, 

 milk should be strained and cooled 

 to a temperature below 50 degrees 

 F., but it must not be cooled in a 

 well, drinking trough located in 

 liarnyard or in any other manner not 

 approved by Board of Health. 



The Board of Health should be 

 notified at once should diphtheria, 

 scarlet fever or typhoid fever devel- 

 op in the family of the dairyman, 

 or any of his employees or their as- 

 sociates, or within the building or 

 premises where milk is stored, hand- 

 led ro distributed, as under these 

 conditions, the sale of milk must be 

 suspended. 



In the main the above includes 

 the more important of the regula- 

 tiops. There are, however, a few ad- 

 ditional opints worthy of mention. 



riean cows and clean milkers ire 

 essential to clean milk, and the wip- 

 ing off of the udder with a damp 

 cloth before milking will reduce the 

 amount of dirt and bacteria to a 

 great extent. There is probably no 

 one utensil more important in the 

 production of clean milk than the 

 covered pall. Although these are not 

 absolutely required. they would, 

 without doubt, prove a good in- 

 vestment to any dairyman. 



In cleaning utensils, there is noth- 

 ing better than live steam, as this 

 effectively destroys all bacteria; boil- 

 ing water is reasonably efficient, but 

 has not any where near the value of 

 steam. 



It is well to expose cans and pails 

 to the air and sunlight after cleans- 

 ing, but care should be used not to 

 place them where the dust from the 

 road will blow into them. The milk 

 producers should realize that these 

 requirements are necessary in insur- 

 ing reasonably clean milk to the con- 

 sumer, who has absolutely no protec- 

 tion, other than this. To some, these 

 rules seem to be a burden and entire- 

 ly necessary. To such, all that can 

 be said is that they have only to vis- 

 it a comparatively small number of 

 milk producing plants, to be soon 

 convinced that the demands are none 

 too strong. None of the Board of 

 Health put out these regulations as 



an ultimatum, rather in most cases 

 an attempt is made to bring the im- 

 portant features before the producer 

 in such a way as to interest him, 

 and in the end accomplish much more 

 by the educational method than 

 would be possible in any other way. 

 Of course all will agree that we must 

 have clean milk, and to insure this 

 there must be hearty cooperation be- 

 tween all parties concerned. If nec- 

 essary, the price of the product must 

 be raised. 



Massachusetts Standard 

 Milk total solids 12.15% 



Milk Fat 3.35% 



Cream Fat 15.00% 



E. H. LEHNERT 



Smith Agr'l School 



DAIRY WEEK 



The entire week of December 6 

 will be spent by the Farm Bureau 

 furthering the interests of the dairy- 

 men in the county. Prof. J. A. Mc- 

 Lean, formerly of the Massachusetts 

 Agricultural College and now with 

 the Quaker Oats Co., Boston, is spend- 

 ing nearly the entire week in the 

 County. A large per cent of the 

 dairymen are acquainted with Prof. 

 McLean and will be glad of the op- 

 portunity to see and hear him again. 

 Several talks will be given by men 

 from the Massachusetts Agricultural 

 College on different topics relating 

 to dairying. 



Meetings will be held in nine towns 

 in the county and at the end of the 

 week a get-to-gether meeting will be 

 held in Northampton. While it is 

 impossible to hold gatherings in all 

 the towns, it is hoped that those who 

 cannot attend any of the meetings in 

 the several towns, will plan to at- 

 tend the one held Saturday at the 

 Smith .Agricultural School, North- 

 ampton. 



The Connecticut Valley Breeders' 

 .Association will have charge of the 

 Saturday meeting and the program 

 they have arranged is especially at- 

 tractive. After a short business meet- 

 ing of the Breeders' Association, 

 Sumner R. Parker of the Franklin 

 County Farm Bureau will give a talk 

 on "More Efficient Management of 

 the Dairy Business." In the after- 

 noon, Director J. L. Hills of the Ver- 

 (CONTINUED ON PAGE 3) 



