230 THE dairyman's manual. 



not be surprising that an apparently insignificant cir- 

 cumstance may produce some unexpected and serious 

 results. Bearing this in mind, one who keeps a cow 

 should ever be watchful and cautious against the least 

 variation of treatment that may so easily afcect the con- 

 dition of the milk. 



Ropy, bitter, or acid milk, the latter producing specks 

 of curd in the butter, may be and usually are caused 

 by ill-health in the cow, by which the condition of the 

 blood is affected. The milk in its normal, healthful 

 condition is sliglitly alkaline ; but when the blood is out 

 of condition its alkalinity may be much increased, or 

 the milk may be acid. In one case only, however, have 

 I found ropy milk excessively alkaline ; in every other 

 case in which I have tested such milk it has been dis- 

 tinctly acid, and has sometimes showed, by the test of 

 litmus paper, a high degree of acidity and has become 

 very soon completely curdled ; the long, fibrous clots, 

 placed under the microscope, appear simply as curd 

 formed in the ducts and molded by them into the stringy 

 pieces which pass through the teat into the milk. This 

 ropy or stringy matter is easily dissolved in a solution of 

 carbonate of soda or potash, and would therefore seem 

 to be caused by acidity. The white specks which often 

 appear in the butter are due to a similar cause, and are 

 merely particles of curd or cheesy matter which are 

 formed in the milk and adhere to the cream, and are car- 

 ried up and mingled with it, and so go with it into the 

 churn. In this case they are only partially removed by 

 the most careful washing, and the butter is unavoidably 

 injured by them. 



The best remedy for all these troubles with the milk 

 is to administer one pound of sulphate of soda (Glauber 

 salts) or of sulphate of magnesia (Epsom salts), dissolved 

 in warm water, by means of a common drenching horn ; 

 and after this has operated, a daily dose of one ounce of 



