Healthfulness of Skimmed Milk 143 
cows is concerned, official inspection of the herds 
is undoubtedly a greater safeguard than dependence 
upon pasteurization or sterilization; and so far as 
the liability of transmission of other diseases is con- 
cerned, the milkman who is careless in regard to 
the cleansing of his utensils would quite as likely be 
careless in the pasteurization or sterilization process, 
so that reliability of the milkman is an important 
factor in the purity of the milk supply, no matter 
what other precautions are taken. , 
Bad flavors in milk.—Milk may be unfit for con- 
sumption for reasons other than the presence of 
dirt or infection with bacterial germs. The cow 
herself is often responsible for bad flavors in milk. 
When lactation is far advanced ‘the milk often has 
a disagreeable salty taste. In extreme cases it may 
even be described as acrid or bitter. While there 
is nothing particularly unwholesome about such milk, 
its bad flavor makes it unfit for food, and if the 
cow is within two months of calving, she should be 
allowed to go dry at once. If the time before calv- 
ing is longer than this, the bad flavor may often be 
remedied by taking care that the cow has plenty of 
succulent food, as roots or silage, and particularly 
that the proportion of dry, fibrous food is reduced 
to a minimum. 
Digestive disorders of any sort in the cow are 
frequently accompanied by strong flavors in the 
milk. These flavors are not to be attributed to the 
food, but to the bad condition of the animal, and 
they normally tend to disappear when the digestive 
