3 1 8 CLEAN MILK 



gravity, fall to the bottom of the vessel and not be forced through 

 with the milk, as commonly happens when milk is poured from 

 above through a strainer. 



In regard to straining milk. Every additional utensil adds 

 another possible medium for the conveyance of germs to milk. Too- 

 great emphasis cannot be put upon this point- — i. e., the necessity for 

 the use of as few utensils as possible. When the cows are thor- 

 oughly clean it is not essential to have any strainer upon the milk 

 pail at all, and the only straining of the milk may be done through 

 two single thicknesses of sterilized cheesecloth with a layer of sterile, 

 absorbent cotton between these. This straining is done when the 

 milk is poured into a receiving can for mixing the warm milk or inta 

 the receiving can of the cooler. 



The strainer cloths used over the milk pails and other utensils- 

 may be of various materials. The writer has employed chiefly 

 cheesecloth or rather gauze (which is cheesecloth prepared by 

 washing, to remove the sizing and impurities, and dried), of the 

 finest mesh, and two layers in thickness. 



A single thickness of coarse cotton flannel or Turkish towelling 

 may be used, however. When the strainer cloth cannot be steri- 

 lized in a regular sterilizer, it should be boiled for twenty minuter 

 wrapped in a towel or clean cloth and left enclosed in this wrapping 

 until used. Then it should be removed, but the fingers should not 

 touch that part of the strainer cloth which will come in contact with 

 the milk. Before sterilizing the cloth, it should be well rinsed in 

 cold water, washed in hot water and washing soda, and rinsed in 

 cold water again. Every little detail must be carried out con- 

 scientiously, as one failure in caring for the milk properly will 

 spoil the result entirely. 



The simplest, cleanest and most inexpensive method of hand- 

 ling milk is to place it — as soon as milked — in a bottle-filler tank 

 and run it at once into bottles and immerse the bottles in ice water. 

 By this method, the need of a cooler is avoided and the chance of: 



