162 DAIRY FARMING 



to create any dust in the stable about milking time, for 

 this is certain to find its way into the milk. Cows should, 

 therefore, never be bedded or receive any dusty feed just 

 before or during milking. 



Dry roughage, such as hay and corn fodder, always 

 contains a considerable amount of dust, and when fed 

 before or during milking may so charge the air with dust 

 as to make clean milk an impossibility. 



Moistening the floor and walls with clean water pre- 

 vious to milking materially minimizes the danger of get- 

 ting dust into the milk. A mistake not infrequently made 

 even in the better class of dairies is to card and brush the 

 cows just before milking. While this results in cleaner 

 cows, the advantage thus gained is far more than off- 

 set by the dirtier air, which, as will be shown later, 

 materially increases the germ content of the milk. The 

 carding and brushing should be done at least thirty min- 

 utes before the milking commences. 



Clean Bedding. Clean shavings and clean cut straw 

 should preferably be used for bedding. Cows stepping 

 and lying on dirty bedding will soil themselves and create 

 a dusty barn air. 



Milking With Dry Hands. A prolific source of 

 milk contamination is the milking with wet hands. Where 

 the milker wets his hands with milk, some of it is bound 

 to drip into the pail, carrying with it thousands or mil- 

 lions of bacteria, depending upon the degree of cleanliness 

 of the milker's hands and the cow's udder. There is no 

 excuse for the filthy practice of wet milking:, since it 

 is just as easy to milk with dry hands. 



Fore=Milk. Where the purest milk is sought, it is de- 

 sirable to reject the first stream or two from each teat, 

 as this contains many thousands of bacteria. The reason 



