18 



How TO Produce Clean Milk. 



[Apk., 



The chief of these are the Dairies, Cowsheds and Milk Shops 

 Orders, 1885, 1886 and 1889; the Infectious Diseases Prevention 

 Act, 1890, and certain Orders of local application, such as are 

 in force in Liverpool and Manchester. Copies of these can be 

 obtained from His Majesty's Stationery Ofi&ce, or from the 

 offices of different local authorities, and as the duties of the 

 farmer or dairyman are plainly stated further reference to these 

 Orders is unnecessary here. 



On 1st September, 1922, unless Parliament otherwise deter- 

 mines, the Milk and Dairies (Consolidation) Act, 1915, will come 

 into force, and thereafter this Act will be the chief legal enact- 

 ment relating to the handling of milk. Copies of the above 

 Orders and Acts should be procured and studied by all dairy 

 farmers. 



Cleanliness of Utensils. — There is a wealth of evidence to 

 prove that one of the most frequent and fertile sources of con- 

 tamination is the utensils used in the handling of milk. It is 

 therefore of fundamental importance that they should be 

 thoroughly washed and sterilised. 



Methods of Wash'nig. — To attain this end they should be 

 rinsed with cold water immediately after use. It is often cus- 

 tomary after the morning milking to leave the milking pails, 

 cooler, etc., unwashed until after brealdast; during the interval 

 a thin film of milk tends to dry on to the sides, especially in 

 warm weather, and the utensils are then more difficult to cleanse. 

 If they are rinsed with cold water immediately after use the 

 washing will be made more easy. Hot water should not be used 

 for the first rinsing of milk vessels, because the heat causes some 

 of the milk to dry on the sides, and in a short time the tinned 

 surface becomes covered with a thin layer of dried milk, which 

 can only be removed by repeated scouring with sand or other 

 scouring substance. 



The utensils should then be thoroughly washed in hot water 

 containing some soda or other cleansing agent, and afterwards 

 rinsed in clean hot water. The final process is the scalding or 

 steaming. If steam is not available the utensils should be 

 immersed in boiling water for, say, three minutes, or in the case 

 of utensils such as a cooler or churn, which cannot be placed in 

 an ordinary copper, boiling water should be poured over or into 

 them until they are too hot to be touclied by the hand. If 

 steam is available all utensils should be steamed for at least 

 three minutes over a steam jet or in a sterilising tank. After 

 scalding or steaming they should be inverted on a rack in a 



