120 THE CREAMERY PATRON'S HANDBOOK. 



growth of almost all forms of bacteria and from the very nature of things 

 cannot be produced or handled in a commercial way without becoming 

 more or less contaminated. Some germs even invade the udder; hair, 

 scales, particles of manure, dirt and dust fall into the bucket during the 

 milking, bacteria float in the air of the stable and add a greater or less num- 

 ber, depending upon the length of time the milk is allowed to stand after 

 being drawn; the buckets are two often unclean or rinsed with water that 

 is germ laden and thus adds to the quota already present. From all 

 these sources and other exposures necessary in the handling of milk it is 

 not surprising that there may be several thousand germs in each cubic 

 centimeter (small thimble full) before it even starts on its way to the cus- 

 tomer. If the milk be permitted to stand without cooling and be delivered 

 from large milk cans by dipping as is the usual custom, it gives additional 

 exposure to street dust, to the questionably clean receptacle, to the air of 

 the dwelling room or kitchen, and tests made upon such milk may show trom 

 one hundred thousand to more than a million germs per cubic centimeter at 

 or within a short time after delivery. The rate with which germs multiply 

 at ninety degrees, the temperature at which much milk is delivered during 

 the summer, is so rapid that we can easily see the necessity for dairymen 

 making two deliveries per day during the summer months. 



Fortunately most of the forms which find their way into the milk are 

 comparatively harmless or only produce a souring. The most common 

 danger is from forms that will produce poisons that may cause diarrhoea or 

 intestinal disturbances. These products affect children more than the 

 adult and are responsible for many deaths under the more familiar names 

 of cholera infantum and summer complaint. A number of out breaks of 

 infectious disease, especially typhoid fever, have been traced to the milk 

 supply; not from the cattle but from the water or affected patients hand- 

 ling the milk. Scarlet fever is another disease that seems to be carried in 

 the same way occasionally. It is not often that disease is carried directly 

 from the animals. Tuberculosis is the disease that is most common to 

 people and cattle but the number of cases contracted from the use of milk 

 is not now considered to be so large as it formerly was. All diseases whether 

 constitutional or local to the mammary gland may exert an unwholesome 

 influence.. 



The city dairyman is interested in the changes which milk undergoes 

 largely from the standpoint of souring. It is imperative that he should 

 deliver milk that is sweet and that will remain in that condition until it 

 can be used. Rapid souring of milk makes it necessary for him to deliver 

 his product twice a day during the heated term or nearly five months of 

 the year. In a city of only 25, 000 population it means the driving of twenty 

 or more wagons, as many drivers, and about thirty horses an extra half day 

 on the road. It means an extra, traveling of from 150 to 200 miles each 

 day or a total of 30,000 miles during the season without additional com- 

 pensation for the trouble. It means very early rising and a very long day's 



