RULES AND REASONS FOR FARM CARE OF MILK. 107 



inadvertently be the means of transmitting contagion. Typhoid fever 

 is quite often disseminated in this way. 



The greatest danger that arises from a diseased milk supply comes 

 from the poison-forming bacteria that get into it through improper handling. 

 The cases of ice cream, cheese and milk poisoning, and the high mortality 

 of bottle-fed infants are in large part due to the poison formed from the 

 putrefactive changes that take place in milks that are produced by care- 

 less and filthy methods of handling. The presence of such disease bacteria 

 cannot be recognized by a simple test. The greatest care should be taken 

 by all dairymen in regard to the milk of animals suffering from any disease; 



FIG. 11. Bacterial content of milk drawn with care. Diminished germ content is shown by 

 smaller number of colonies (330 bacteria per cc.). Compare this culture with that shown in 

 Fig. 10 on opposite page. 



also in allowing persons to handle the milk supply who are convalescing 

 from or who have been exposed to contagious diseases of any sort. 



DIRECT ABSORPTION OF TAINTS. 



In a great many cases where milk becomes tainted so as to impair its 

 value for cheese making, the trouble is due to the operation of another 

 set of causes than those that have just been considered. It is a well known 

 fact that milk readily absorbs many volatile substances with which it may 

 come in, contact, and it is generally believed that the taints and defects 

 that are from time to time observed in milk are due to this absorptive 

 property rather than to the growth and development of various fermenta- 

 tive organisms that form undesirable flavors and odors by breaking down 

 certain substances in the milk. While in the popular mind greater 

 importance is attached to this physical absorption than the actual facts 



