38 



EEPOET OF THE 



No. 55 



to be taken to the gate or to the city in an eight gallon can, the equipment is not 

 so complete. In the first place, the matter of washing the milk pails and cans is 

 generally looked after by the women of the house and the sight of the milk pails 

 and cans standing upside down against the wall of the milk house in the open- air 

 and sunshine is a familiar one on the Ontario dairy farm. The ordinary broad- 

 top pail is in common use, very few small-top pails having yet been adopted. No 

 particular attention is paid to the matter of the milking stool and one of wood 

 constitutes the almost invariable type and often far from clean. It is probably 

 safe to say that the majority of dairy farms are now equipped with a milk house 

 of some kind, some merely a simple, wooden structure and others of more pre- 

 tentious brick or cement. It cannot be said, however, that the majority have ice 

 houses, although a considerable number have. The majority rely on cold water 



from the spring, and especially in the numerous 

 well watered dairy sections, there is a plentiful 

 supply of this. Those who have not milk houses 

 have a tank fitted up in some convenient place 

 or have a room off the stable equipped with an 

 aerator over which they run the milk to cool it 

 immediately after milking. Recent experiments 

 conducted by the Department of Agriculture at 

 Ottawa and dealt with at greater length in an- 

 other chapter, show that this is to.be strongly con- 

 demned. In one instance it was found that a big 

 concrete tank for cooling the milk had been built 

 in the s'table immediately behind the cows. This 

 was done to " save trouble " and quite oblivious 

 of the contaminating effect it would have on the 

 milk. Although it is carried out with varying de- 

 grees of efficiency, the wisdom of prompt chilling 

 of the milk is very generally recognized. One 

 case, however, was found where the dairy- 

 man explained that he did not bother cooling his morning milk because 

 his customers in the city thought they were not getting it fresh unless they got it 

 warm from the cow. On the other hand, a dairyman in Northern Ontario followed 

 the laudable practice of using cans with ice tubes which extended from the lid 

 about one-third down the can. The ice therein contained was a guarantee that 

 the milk would not attain an abnormal temperature before being delivered to the 



Small-top pail reduces contamina- 

 tion by twenty-five per cent. 



consumers. 



PLENTY OF ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT. 



These few general commonplace facts constitute the story of the methods in 

 vogue on the dairy farms of the Province. Something more definite is essential, 

 however, in order to determine the necessity or otherwise for reform and improve- 

 ment. Looking at the matter from the Provincial standpoint, we are bound to 

 say that we found no basis in fact for the sweeping and alarmist statements which 

 are sometimes made in reference to conditions on the farm or the scathing de- 

 nunciations so often heaped indiscriminately upon the dairyman. In so saying, 

 we do not wish to conceal the fact that in a percentage of dairy farms the pre- 

 mises and methods are so filthy that they would not be tolerated for a minute in 

 any other place where food for human consumption was being produced. Thanks 



