28 THE COW IN HEALTH AND DISEASE 



and several others all contribute to contami- 

 nate milk when it is artiiicially drawn for 

 human consumption. The lime elapsing be- 

 tTveen the drawing of milk and its consumption 

 and the rapidity with which it develops bac- 

 teria make it necessary to use the utmost pre- 

 caution in handling it. When calves are fed 

 on milk, artifically drawn from the cow, the 

 contamination, decomposition and irritant prop- 

 erties that develop oftentimes prove dangerous 

 and many times fatal because of the gastro- 

 intestinal conditions which they cause. In- 

 fants often suffer with this same condition, and 

 in the cities where bottle-fed babies are com- 

 mon, from 10 to 20 per cent of the infant 

 deaths are from this cause alone. In one of 

 the large cities of this state where they have 

 had competent and rigid municipal milk in- 

 spection, during the first three years infant 

 funerals were reduced 33 1/3 per cent, some 

 record to be proud of, we should think. 



The stalls where cows are kept should be 

 cleaned some time before milking, so that the 

 cows may be well bedded down and the dust 

 have time to settle and the odors to banish; 

 the attendant who does the milking should not 

 smell of the odors of other farm animals with 

 which he may have been working and should 

 wear clean clothing and should have clean 

 hands. It is a common practice with many 

 milkers to go to milk without washing and 

 then wet the hands with the milk during the 



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