CHAPTER V 



CLEAN MILE 



Cleanliness is the keynote to the whole situation. 

 Clean milk is the milk in the cocoanut. In fact, that magic 

 word "cleanliness" underUes all sanitation and hygiene. 



Cleanliness has a different meaning to-day from what it 

 had fifty years or more ago. Then we only knew of aesthetic 

 cleanliness : now a thing is not clean unless it is biologically 

 clean. An object may look clean, but nevertheless be in- 

 fected. On the other hand, an object may look dirty, but be 

 biologically clean. However, clean-looking things are apt 

 to be safe things, and clean methods are the only safe meth- 

 ods. The old-fashioned housekeeper who kept her pots and 

 pans shining and her kitchen cleaner than her parlor is a 

 model of the type of cleanliness needed in good dairy prac- 

 tice. Cleanliness means not only the absence of dirt and in- 

 fection, but it also means the absence of flies, roaches, ants, 

 rats, mice, and other vermin. 



A clean stable, a clean dairy, a clean milk room has no 

 odor. An unpleasant, disagreeable, or sourish milk odor 

 is a sure sign of lack of cleanliness. This simple telltale is 

 one of the best evidences we have of the efficiency of the 

 methods used. Milk is so sticky and greasy, and adheres so 

 tenaciously to surfaces that ordinary methods of cleanliness 

 will not suffice. It requires plenty of elbow-grease to keep 

 things clean about a dairy or dairy farm. All apparatus 

 must be taken apart daily, thoroughly scrubbed, cleansed, 

 and scalded. Scrupulous cleanliness appUes to floors and 

 all surfaces, to milk pails and all containers, to milk heat- 

 ers and all apparatus. All piping should be freely access- 

 ible and contain no rough surfaces or places where milk will 



