322 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



of cream on the farm. Upon it we heap the odium of having 

 caused the bringing down of the quahty of American butter in 

 recent years. If it is guilty 6f a small part of the crimes with 

 which we charge it, it should forthwith be sentenced to capital 

 punishment. We find, however ,that it is not the separator that 

 is the cause of the poor cream but it is the abuse, the neglect, and 

 the carelessness with which it is used that is the cause of much 

 of the poor cream and poor butter today. Let us bear in mind 

 that milk or cream are food products more delicate and more 

 easily tainted and contaminated by the things with which it 

 comes in contact than is any other product of the farm. Often 

 the separator is set up next to the pigpen or manure pit and the 

 user still expects that the finest butter can be made of the cream 

 separated under such conditions. If we are a little busy we neg- 

 lect to clean the separator more than once a day and sometimes 

 not even so often as that, and still we expect that out of all the 

 contamination with the slime and filth of a dirty separator the 

 cream will come forth unharmed. When milk is passed through 

 a dirty separator there may be nothing in the cream that one can 

 see or taste or smell but the cream has been thoroughly inocu- 

 lated with the bacteria that have been growing in the dirty sepa- 

 rator and when transferred to the cream they find it a splendid 

 place for growth. Such cream does not keep well and the butter 

 that is made from it is ''tainted." The separator bowl should be 

 taken apart and all the parts properly washed and scalded each 

 time it is used. Here too, as with the other utensils, a cloth 

 should not be used to dry them but. after scalding the various 

 parts they should be allowed to drain. If for a sufficient reason 

 it is impossible to wash the separator at once after using it, the 

 worst possible thing that could be done is to flush the bowl with 

 warm water and let it stand. This makes the bacteria grow all 

 the faster in the dirty separator bowl. The harm done will not be 

 so great if a pailful of cold well or spring water is run through the 

 separator after the cream has been flushed^ out with a quart or 

 two of skim milk. This will leave the separator bowl cold and 

 prevent such rapid growth of bacteria as would otherwise take 

 place. 



