CHAPTER XX. 



CARE OF MILK AND SKIM-MILK. 



No matter how skillful a butter maker may be he can 

 not produce the highest quality of butter from milk of 

 inferior quality. Skill may 

 do much to improve qual- 

 ity but it can never make 

 perfection out of imperfec- 

 tion. It should, therefore, 

 be as much a duty of the 

 butter maker to keep his 

 patrons properly instructed 

 in the care and handling of 

 milk as it is to keep himself 

 posted on the latest and 

 most approved methods of 

 making butter. 



The cows should be milk- 

 ed in clean, well ventilated 

 barns in which the air is kept free from dust during milk- 

 ing. This means that cows should not be fed or bedded 

 about milking time. In ordinary milking a great share 

 of the bacteria find their way into the milk through 

 the dust that dislodges from the animal. This is easily 

 prevented by wiping the flanks and udder of the cow with 

 a moist cloth just before milking. 



Immediately after the milk is drawn it should be re- 

 moved from the barn to a clean, pure atmosphere where it 

 is aerated and cooled by running it over a combined 

 aerator and cooler like that shown in Fig. 67. The 



Fig. 67. — Milk aerator and cooler. 



