l88 BACTERIA, YEASTS, AND MOLDS 



preserve milk in a tenement house without the use of ice. 

 The grocer keeps the milk on ice, and the customer buys 

 it in small quantities to be consumed at once. This would 

 be a proper arrangement if it were not for the fact that 

 poorer kinds of milk find their way into these groceries, 

 and are likely to be kept until old, so that as a rule the 

 milk thus purchased is the poorest grade that reaches the 

 market. It is usually sold at a small price, but is of such 

 poor quality that the poorer classes themselves would be 

 much wiser to purchase a better grade. 



In brief, if one's pocketbook allows it, milk from a 

 sanitary dairy is by far the best. Where this is not pos- 

 sible, however, milk from the common milkman will ordi- 

 narily be satisfactory ; but it is impossible for the customer 

 to be sure of it, or to exercise control over the kind of 

 milk furnished him. He must simply select a milkman 

 who seems to him cleanly and reliable. Grocery milk is 

 not to be recommended, for, while sometimes perfectly 

 satisfactory, it is apt to be of a poor grade, filled with 

 bacteria, and quite likely to produce serious trouble when 

 used by young children. 



But our care should not cease with the scrutiny of its 

 source. Even though originally of the highest character, 

 milk will not keep in our homes unless properly treated. 

 The keeping of milk depends upon temperature and 

 cleanliness in the pantry. 



2. Milk Vessels. Special care should be given to the 

 vessels in which milk is received and kept. A large part 

 of the trouble which the housewife experiences in keeping 

 milk is due, not to the milkman, nor to the character of 

 the milk which she purchases, but to the condition of the 



