FORTY-FIRST ANNUAL CONVENTION 189 



duced or manufactured into cheese or butter. They have a Gov- 

 ernment Brand for butter and cheese and they are very carefut 

 that no one obtains the Government's seal who has not compHecl 

 with full requirements regarding cleanliness. 



Clean and sanitary methods must be used during milking. 

 The barn or milking sheds should be free from bad odors or air 

 charged with dust particles. Dusty feeds, like hay or feeds. 

 which are strongly flavored, like ensilage, should not be fed at 

 milking time. Dust and dirt must be prevented from falling 

 into the milk pail. As the old saying goes, ''An ounce of pre- 

 vention is worth a pound of cure" ; for this reason the cow^ 

 must be clean and healthy and their udders and flanks should 

 be wiped with a damp cloth before milking. The dust particles 

 will be taken with the cloth or left clinging to the hairs, so they, 

 cannot fall into the milk during milking. Long hairs should be 

 clipped from the flanks so as not to be gatherers of filth. At 

 your Experiment Station experiments were made to determine 

 the amount of dirt which fell from the udders of cows that 

 were wiped with a damp cloth before milking and those that 

 . were not wiped. With clean cows, three and one-half times 

 I more dirt fell from udders that were not wiped with a damp 

 I cloth and wdth very dirty cows ninety-four times as much dirt 

 fell from the unwiped udders into the receptacle, thus proving 

 that it is very good policy to wipe the udders of cows with a 

 damp cloth before milking. In order to prevent large quanti- 

 ties of dirt .from falling into the milk at milking, special sani- 

 tary milk pails which have small openings, or pails which are 

 covered with cotton strainers must be used. 



The amount of dirt that gets into the milk determines the 

 amount of undesirable bacteria that will be in the milk. This 

 is why dirty milk or cream spoils quicker than clean milk or 

 cream. Often the milker contaminates the milk with dirty hands 

 or dirty clothing. I have seen a milker wet his hands with milk, 

 then proceed to milk the cow and have the dark brown drip- 

 pings drop into the milk pail. I told him of this bad practice 

 and asked him if he cared to drink manure in his milk when he 

 knew it to be present. He said that he never thought of dirt 



