28 STORRS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 
The important facts shown by these tables may be briefly 
summarized as follows: 
1. A small number of bacteria in the cream at the begin- 
ning of an experiment indicates that the cream was tolerably 
fresh. ‘There was, however, considerable variation in the 
number in different experiments, varying from a number so 
small as to be impossible to estimate with the dilutions used, 
up to about thirty-six million in the specimen containing the 
largest numbers. It should be stated that the different dairies 
tested showed a tolerably uniform difference in this respect, 
cream from some dairies having always a small number and 
that from others a larger number, a fact which was parallel 
with the care exercised in the handling of the cream at the 
dairy. 
2. There is in all cases a constant and rapid increase in the 
number of bacteria during the ripening of the cream, continu- 
ing for 36 to 48 hours, or sometimes 60 hours. ‘The numbers 
reached at the time of maximum growth, as will be seen from 
the tables, are enormous. In the fifth and seventh experi- 
ments, for example, within 48 hours there were a billion and a 
half bacteria per cubic centimeter. It should be here noticed 
that these numbers are far in excess of anything ever reported 
elsewhere for natural media. So far as we know the number 
of bacteria in no other natural medium ever examined by bac- 
teriologists begins to approach the number found in cream 
ripened for 36 to 48 hours. 
3. ‘The number of bacteria present at the maximum is quite 
independent of the number present at the start. In the second 
experiment the number at the start was less than two million, 
but within 48 hours the number was about as great as in any 
other lot tested. In the first experiment the number at the 
start was over two million, while the maximum number was 
only about one-quarter that of experiment No. 2. Some of 
the other experiments illustrate the same thing perhaps more 
clearly. The conditions which regulated the number present 
at the maximum we have as yet been unable to determine. 
4. After reaching a maximum in about 48 hours there is a 
universal decrease in numbers of bacteria. The numbers fall 
off during the next few hours, and by the 7oth hour may have 
