1892.] Some Uses of Bacteria. 901 
SOME USES OF BACTERIA 
By Dr. H. W. Conn. ‘ 
Every farmer, of course, appreciates the value of keeping 
stock, and you all know that you cannot run a farm without 
your cows, your horses, your sheep, your hens, and your pigs. 
You do not appreciate, however, that it is just as necessary to 
keep a stock of bacteria on hand on your farm to carry on 
your farming operations. The farmer has learned to-day that 
he must keep a good breed of cows and a good breed of stock 
in general, but farmers generally do not appreciate that it is 
equally necessary to keep a good breed of bacteria. You can- 
not make butter or cheese without cows; you cannot make 
butter or cheese satisfactorily without bacteria. You can- 
not cultivate your fields without your horses to help you, 
but all the cultivation that you might give your fields would 
be useless were it not that these little creatures of which I 
shall speak this morning come in after you get through and 
complete the process which you have begun. 
Now, probably many of you have never particularly 
thought that your farm is stocked with bacteria, but they are 
there. They are in your brooks, in your springs, in your 
wells, in your rivers ; they are in your dairy, in your milk, in 
your butter, in your cheese, in your barn. They are in the 
air, they are in the soil, and your manure heap is a paradise 
for them. 
Bacteria are in rather bad odor in the minds of most peo- 
ple, and we are all inclined to look with horror upon them. 
We have a sort of shrinking when any one speaks to us of 
the number of bacteria in the milk which we drink. The 
reason for this, however, is simply an historical one. When 
bacteria were first discovered it was early noticed that they 
had a causal relation to disease, and scientists went to work 
from the very first to investigate diseases in relation to bacte- 
1From Connecticut Agric. Rep. for 1892. 
