738 
Supplement to the " Tropical Agricultumt." 
[Apbil 1, 1899. 
sometimes the odour i3 so persUtent that this fails 
to eliminate it. 
Milk may acquire a taint some time after milk- 
ing ; and still it may be clue to direct absorption. 
If it should happen to be placed in a room with 
odour-yielding substances, it can easily acquire it 
in a cold condition. Si:ch belated absorption 
might be considered as due to germ origin, uniesa 
the conditions were carefully determined. 
It is a current belief that milk does not take up 
odours so long as it is warmer tliau the surround- 
ing air, and on this ground the practice of leaving 
the milk in the cowshed for a longer or shorter 
period of time is sometimes defended, more especi- 
ally if the cans are arranged so as to preclude the 
possibility of the introduction of dust and dirt. 
This belief is not infrequently formulated in this 
way : — Milk evolves odour.^ when warmer, and 
absorbs them when colder, than the surrounding air. 
Recent e.\perimeuts made by the writer seem to 
indicate that such a general conclusion cannot be 
experimentally verified. Exposure of hot and cold 
milk to an atmosphere charged with various 
vapours and odours, such as manure, urine, ensilage, 
and different volatile substances, showed that 
almost without exception both hot and cold milk 
absorbed distinctive odours in the course of a few 
hours to such an extent that they could readily be 
detected. Moreover, the intensity of the odour 
was almost invaribly more pronounced i'l the 
warm than the cold sample, although preciuitions 
were taken to have the temperature of both samples 
alike at time of judging. 
This belief, that warm milk doei not readily 
absorb odours, is contrary to the housewife's 
experience who allows warm milk or warm food to 
cool before putting it into the refrigerator. Being 
warmer than the surrounding air, it absorbs more 
readily the odours arising from fruit, vegetables, 
or other food substances, than would be the case if 
it was first cooled down. Such a condition i-s not 
due to the retention of tne " animn! odours," but 
direct absorption from without. 
The practical bearing of this is that milk sliould 
not be kept in contact vvitli air that is saturated « i h 
undesirable or marked odours. Even an exposure 
for a half-hour has sometimes been fi uud sufficient 
to impregnate the milk with the odour of decom- 
posing manure. The straining of tlie milk in the 
cowshed, and then its immediate removal, may not 
give time for the absorption of odours in a marked 
degree, but it should be borne in mind that the 
conditions at that time are the most favourable for 
rapid absorption of any odours, and tliat in milk 
that is being produced in the best possible manner 
even such an exposure is not to be recom- 
mended. 
The presence of bacteria interferes not only with 
the keeping quality of the milk, but affects the 
sanitary conditions of the same. B.icteiiaare also 
intimately coiinected with the production of disease 
that the mere mention of the word calls up to t!ie 
mindj of many dread visions of epidemics. That 
all bacteria should thus be considered as enemies 
of man is entirely erroneous, for, in many cases, 
they are decidedly beneficial, and particularly is 
this true with reference to those forms found iu 
the milk. The mere fact that milk invariably con- 
tains liundreds of thousands, if not millions, of 
bacteria per cc. need not iu itself caus-e alurm. 
Mere numbers of bacteria are no just criterion as 
to the hygienic value of milk. Of course, just to 
the extent that bacterial life can be reduced in 
milk, just to that extent are tne decomposition 
changes retnrded, but milk or its by-pro luctis, i-kim 
milk or buttermilk, may contain scores of millions 
of germs and still be perfectly w^iolesome from a 
hygiejiic point of view. 
The bacteria that exert a deleterious influence 
on human liealth are not necessarily tliose that are 
distinctively disease-producing, — i.e., pathogenic 
bacteria; for, in many cases, sickness is cau«tsd by 
the ingestion of milk that is contaminated by 
putrefactive organisms. 
WILD INDIGO AS FOOD. 
The Agricultural Ledger, No. 197, 18D8, deals 
with the Wild Indigos as a source of food iu times 
of scarcity. 
The fact that the grain afforded by certain 
species of Indigofera is eate i in years of scircity 
is not new. The grains are known to have been 
consumed during the Deccan famine of 1877-78, 
and were described in a paper re.id by Dr. W. Griiy 
before the Bomb ly Medical and Physical Soc-iety 
80 long ago as 1882. The seeds were ground to 
flour, and either alone or mixed with cereals they 
were made Into cakes which are very palatable. 
They were occasionally eaten raw but were found 
to produce ill-effects; when properly ctwked, how- 
ever, they afforded a nourishing food which had 
all the characteristics of pulse. 
From a letter nddressc'd early this year to the 
Survey Commissioner and Director Land Records 
andj^griculture, Bombay, it nppeirs that during 
18'.)7, a year of great scarcity in India, a consider- 
able number of [wjople of Maisiras aiul Fandhapur, 
iu the Bombiy Prciidency, were subsisting on 
these grains. The following were the varieties so 
used : Indigofera cordifolia, I. glandulota, and /. 
liyiifolia. 
Analyses of these grains h.ad been made by Prof. 
Lyon, Chemical Examiner of Bombay, in 1882, but 
Prof. Church, who is conducting u series of 
analyses on India Food grains on a special plan 
of his own— in which he brings out very 
prominently the nutrient ratio for comj>arative 
purposes— has again subjected them to a Chemical 
examination at the Imperial Institute. 
Of the three species of wild Indigo mentioned 
above and e.^camined by Prof. Church, the only one 
indigenous to Ceylon is I. lisifolia wliicli inhabits 
the dry country. In India the flour of the grain 
with the husk removed by pounding is m,ade"into 
bread. This bread has a somewhat bitter tastf-, 
and is therefore eaten with ve^'etables or hot condi- 
me;its. To ni^ike the bre id palatable the flour of 
millets is mixed with the Indigo. The bread should 
not be made of the whole grain without poundini/, 
as it is said to produce a swelling of the mouth or 
body wUeu thus eaten, 
