THIRTY-SIXTH ANNUAL CONVENTION. 267 



degrees Fahrenheit, will not sour quickly because bacterial 

 growth is prevented. Ordinary well or spring water stands at 

 about 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Milk set in a tightly closed trough 

 through which there is running water or a frequent change of 

 well water, can be kept sweet for many hours, providing proper 

 care has been given to the milking. Buckets, strainers, pans, or 

 any other utensils with which milk comes in contact should be 

 kept clean. In cleaning the utensils, cold water should be used 

 first to rinse out all milk, then hot water may be safely used. If 

 hot water is used first, it coagulates the albumen in the milk and 

 it cannot be easily removed from the corners. All metal utensils 

 used for milk should be so well soldered that nothing will remain 

 in the seams at the bottom or up the sides; the joints should be 

 well filled with solder. 



One plan for keeping milk sweet is to pasteurize it. This 

 means to heat it slowly to about i6o degrees Fahrenheit and hold 

 it at that heat for a few minutes until the bacteria are killed; 

 then the temperature of the milk is reduced to between fifty and 

 sixty degrees to prevent the growth of any bacteria that may en- 

 ter it from the air. Heating milk beyond i6o degrees gives it a 

 burnt taste and an odor due to the solidifying or cooking of the 

 albumen and the burning or carmalizing of the milk sugar. The 

 albumen may be seen in the light scum that forms on milk that 

 has been subjected to heat. If the scum be brownish, it is due to 

 the carmalized milk sugar. 



Milk should never be placed in a musty smelling cupboard 

 or near cooked turnips, onions, or other foods giving off odors. 

 Its being a liquid causes it to absorb odors very rapidly. Nor 

 should it be placed in a cellar or other place where there are de- 

 caying vegetables, for the same reason. A cow that eats rag- 

 weeds and other plants having peculiar odors will give to the 

 milk a taste that often renders it unpalatable. Butter also will 

 carry the taste of the plant eaten by the cow. Some claim that 

 these odors may be imparted to the milk from the pollen that falls 

 into the mifk from the cow that has been feeding in fields having 

 plants with some peculiar odor. Most odors can be driven from 



