RULES AND REASONS FOR FARM CARE OF MILK. Ill 



or overcome the taint organism that is inoculated. If boiled milk is used 

 this disturbing factor is for the most part eliminated. 



TREATMENT OF MILK CONTAMINATED WITH BACTERIAL TAINTS. 



Having described in a general way the origin of the various taints that 

 are to be noted from time to time in imperfect milk, the practical ques- 

 tions that arise in the minds of milk producers are how can these difficulties 

 be overcome if they have already occurred. Often little or no special at- 

 tention is paid to the conditions that may result in defective milk so long 

 as the milk supply is normal. Only when trouble has already arisen do 

 we awake to the necessity of taking steps to overcome the present difficulty 

 and avoid a repetition in the future. If we would once realize that pre- 

 vention is very much easier than cure, we would see the necessity for a 

 more thorough understanding of the conditions that surround these de- 

 fects. 



Inasmuch as the attention of the factory patron is more prominently 

 directed toward these difficulties when once he is troubled with them, it 

 will be better to consider the different ways in treating a defective milk 

 supply. The first step is to determine accurately the cause of the difficulty. 

 Successful measures cannot be intelligently directed against unknown causes. 

 From the rule given above the milk producer can easily determine whether 

 the given defect is due to a living germ or whether it is the result of some 

 physiological disturbance of the animal, or possibly due to direct absorp- 

 tion. 



In doing this it is necessary to locate the difficulty. It may be due 

 to a single animal or to a general condition of the herd. Sampling tht 

 milk of the herd separately will enable one to determine more easily tho 

 cause of the difficulty. 



Supposing the taint to be due to some abnormal fermentation, ho^ 

 should it be treated? There are two general methods of treatment thav 

 can be followed: 



(1) Eradication, by eliminating the inciting cause. 



(2) Overcoming the difficulty by an antagonistic fermentation. 

 Let us assume that the defect is a ropy condition that appears in the 



night's milk, or milk that is held over Sunday. This difficulty is due en- 

 tirely to the presence in an unusual degree of certain kinds of bacteria 

 that have gained access to the milk in large numbers. From ordinary 

 milks these slime forming organisms can often be isolated. In three separate 

 instances, during the past season, in the writer's laboratory, micro-organ- 

 isms of this class have been found in normal milk. It is only because this 

 particular kind was not in the ascendancy that the milk did not undergo 

 slimy degeneration under ordinary conditions. Such forms exist in water, 

 soil and filth of various kinds, but few of this type get into the milk com- 

 pared with the total number there present. If .however, a mass of them 

 should be accidentally introduced and they should gain the mastery over 



