210 STORRS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 
The milk in this group also contains a higher average amount 
of insoluble dirt than does that of any of the preceding groups. 
The facts shown in these tables are sufficient to portray very 
clearly the conditions surrounding the production and subse- 
quent handling of this milk. The construction of many of 
the stables was entirely unsuited for the production of good 
milk. In many cases there were no windows in the stable for 
letting in light and no drop behind the cows. The cows them- 
selves were badly covered with filth and the entire surround- 
ings were wholly unfitted for the production of any article 
intended for human food. As stated earlier in this report the 
relation between stable conditions and the quality of the milk 
will be discussed in another report and need not be dwelt upon 
here. 
. GENERAL DISCUSSION. 
The Total Bacteria.—It is only during the past few years 
that the question of the wholesomeness of milk has received 
any consideration on the part of those having in charge the 
health of the people, except as its wholesomeness might be 
affected by the use of chemicals in preserving the milk. Now 
that it is definitely known that some of the most serious of 
human diseases are sometimes spread by the disease producing 
organisms being carried in milk attention is being turned to 
the conditions under whieh market milk is produced. Thus 
far most of the bacteriological work with milk has been done 
by city physicians upon milk after it has reached the city. 
Much of this milk is shipped long distances and is many hours 
old when the sample is taken so that the results do not neces- 
sarily represent even approximately the bacterial conditions of 
the milk as it left the producer. The results given in this 
paper on the contrary represent the bacterial condition of the 
milk as it was actually delivered each day by the individual 
producers and the conditions must be due to m¢thods of pro- 
duction and not to changes which have taken place during 
transportation. What the condition of this milk would be by 
the time it reached the city and was delivered to the consumer 
one can only imagine. In fact it was found to be impossible 
to keep most of this milk sweet long enough to get it to the 
city even when placed in cars and iced as soon as received. It 
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