43 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



it is honestly and carefully handled from the cow to the consum- 

 er's table, confidence will be restored and the consumer will pay 

 you for the necessary increased cost of providing him with a 

 clean and more sanitary product. There are some simple rules 

 for handling milk that require a little extra labor, with no ex- 

 pense, that will add to the keeping quality of the milk produced. 

 And when you add to the keeping quality of the milk produced, 

 you take away from the dealer that argument that he uses when 

 he cuts the buying price, that he has to cut the price because so 

 much of the milk sours on him before he gets it to the consumer. 



Bacteria. 



Besides the chemical compounds, milk also contains large 

 numbers of minute organisms called bacteria. Few, if any, are 

 normally present in the milk within the udder of clean, healthy 

 cows, but they are so abundant everywhere in the air, especially 

 about the stable and barnyard, and cling in such numbers to the 

 bodies of the cows that they are always found in milk as soon 

 as it leaves the udders or even just inside the teats. 



They reproduce very rapidly in a favorable medium, such 

 as warm milk, so that the number present becomes very large un- 

 less measures are taken to hinder their increase. The amount in 

 milk of a given age varies with the conditions. That from clean 

 cows, with freshly washed udders, milked into well scalded pails, 

 in a clean place, free from air currents, by persons with clean 

 hands and clothes, and quickly cooled and carefully handled, 

 may contain a few, while milk from ill-kept animals, untidily 

 handled in a dirty place, may contain enormous quantities. Since, 

 as we will show later, bacteria cause the spoiling of milk, and 

 may be harmful in other ways. It is very evident that scrupu- 

 lous cleanliness about everything which comes in contact with 

 the milk is of first importance. 



The excessive number of certain bacteria in milk are the 

 cause of the high death rate among children, while the specific 

 germs when present are the cause of infectious diseases, and in 

 many instances have caused severe epidemics of Typhoid Fever, 



