New York AGRICULTURAL EXPRPRIMENT STATION. 51 
cates that at times this may harbor a large growth of Bacillus 
rudensis. At the time of a small outbreak at Factory Number 
Four in 1902 red discolorations were observed on the wooden 
followers of the cheese hoops. The hoops, cloths and followers 
were thoroughly steamed, and the spots did not appear in the 
cheese of the succeeding days. The fact that a thorough steam- 
ing of the vats and tools rapidly cuts down the number and 
importance of the spots strengthens the belief that under ordi- 
nary conditions the main seed bed of infection is in the factory. 
However, the sudden appearance of a large number of red 
points in the cheese from a single vat when ‘the product of the 
remaining vats was nearly or quite free from the trouble points 
to an outside source of contamination. The presence of a con- 
siderable number of red points in the test cheeses made direct 
from the milk of the individual patrons, together with the fact 
that these points were especially numerous just at the time when 
the spots were abundant in the product of the factory, makes it 
fairly certain that at times considerable quantities of Bacillus 
rudensis are brought to the factory by some of the patrons. 
The next step is to determine when and under what conditions 
Bacillus rudensis gains entrance to the milk. Considerable work 
in this connection has already been done, but the data collected 
were not sufficient to warrant drawing safe conclusions when the 
lateness of the season put a stop to this phase of the investigation. 
In no case have we found evidence to warrant us in deciding 
whether Bacillus rudensis first gained a foothold in a dairy or at 
the factory. In either case, under ordinary conditions, the fac- 
tory often offers a suitable seed bed and the germs thrive there 
abundantly. At the time of making the cheese a considerable 
number of these germs pass off with the whey. These are taken 
by the patrons with the whey to their farms and fed to the young 
animals, and in so doing the region around the barn becomes 
more or less seeded. The exact conditions which bring about 
a seeding of the milk of any dairy have not been worked out in 
detail. The facilities for washing the cans at the farms are not 
such as to insure the removal of all the germs which were in 
the whey, and a portion of the trouble may be accounted for in 
