NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNlVERSimiBRARlES 
 
 cnonAfi387 U 
 
This book is due on the date indicated 
 below and is subject to an overdue 
 fine as posted at the circulation desk. 
 
 EXCEPTION: Date due will be 
 earlier if this item is RECALLED. 
 
 JUN 1 2^ 2 
 
 
 r\3 
 
 200M/06-99-991212 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 S. D. BELCHER, M.D. 
 
 Research Worker in the Rockefeller Institute 
 for Medical Research, attached to the 
 Research Laboratory of the De- 
 partment of Health of the 
 City of New York 
 
 With an Introduction by 
 WILLIAM HALLOCK PARK, M.D. 
 
 Professor of Bacteriology and Hygiene in the 
 
 University and Bellevue Hospital Medical 
 
 College and Director of the Research 
 
 Laboratory of the Department of 
 
 Health of the City of New York 
 
 New York 
 
 Orange Judd Company 
 
 1909 
 
Copyright, 1903, by 
 The Habdy Publishing Compact 
 
 4-^4-^ 
 
 [Printed in U. S. A.] 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 Frontispiece Facing page 1 
 
 Title Page 1 
 
 List of Illustrations 7 
 
 Preface 9 
 
 Introduction 11 
 
 The Transportation of Milk 23 
 
 Chapter I. TJie Cow Yard and the Pasture . . . .28 
 
 The ideal situation for a cow barn — The relation of cow 
 yards and pastures to the cleanliness of the herd — The 
 evils of insufficient field quarters — The improvement of 
 a bad cow yard — Changing the pasture. 
 
 Chapter II. Manure 33 
 
 The evils of manure — Keeping it out of milk — Proper dis- 
 posal and storage. 
 
 Chapter III. The Coio Barn 37 
 
 In general — The winter stabling of cows — Its deficiencies 
 as compared with what Nature provides — The need of a 
 building designed for the use of cows only — Advantage 
 of the shed style of barn — Small barns and small herds 
 — The single line of stalls — The floor — Cement better 
 than wood — Slope to facilitate draining — Construction 
 of a urine gutter — Substitute for the manure gutter. 
 
 Sidings — The value of smoothness and light color. 
 
 ** 
 
 -\% 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS — CONTINUED 
 
 Light and tuberculosis in cattle— Windows and skylights— Light 
 essential for good health. 
 
 Ventilation — Pure air in the fields and in the barn — Overhead outlet 
 for dead air— The question of air space and ventilation. 
 
 The stalls and the stanchion— Skeleton construction— Base of the 
 stanchion sunk in the floor— Single bar for partitions— The problem 
 of accommodating cow and stall— The tipping stanchion— What it 
 accomplishes toward cleanliness. 
 
 Mangers and water buckets. 
 
 Equipment — Artificial light — Water supply— Washing facilities. 
 
 Storage — Objectionable — Unnecessary dirt from farm machinery and 
 odors from feed. 
 
 Care of the barn — Clean condition beneficial to the herd — Two general 
 cleanings — Dust the great enemy — The value of whitewash — Flush- 
 ing the floor daily — The time for sweeping — What to do with the 
 manure gutter — The use of metal vehicles. 
 
 Bedding— Feeding. 
 
 Chapter IV. Isolation Quarters 66 
 
 The care of a sick cow— The necessity of separation from the herd— 
 Of use in the treatment of a tuberculous cow. 
 
 Chapter V. The Improvement of a Dairy . . .69 
 
 What can be done with small expenditure— A typical instance. 
 
 Chapter VI. The Cows 74 
 
 The responsibility for their health and condition— The question of 
 cleanliness — Manure on the cow's body — The use of a broom — A 
 special cleaning — Washing and scrubbing with brush and soap — 
 Keeping cows standing until the milking is over— The throat latch 
 —Clipping long hairs and trimming the tail. 
 
 Chapter VII. The Milker 81 
 
 The rules of the kitchen apply to the production of milk— Milk and 
 the absorption of odors — Special qualifications of the milker — Ex- 
 cused from work in case of illness— Washing hands before milking 
 and special milking clothes. 
 
 4 
 
TABLE OF C O N T E N T S — C O N T I N U E D 
 
 Chapter VIII. Milk and Its Preservation 
 
 Milking as nature devised it— The scientist and his sterilized bottle 
 —The lesson for the farmer— Non-exposure of milk— A corrective 
 for unavoidable exposure— The cause of milk souring— Exposure, 
 what it is and how to reduce it— Ice the best preservative— What 
 cooling milk accomplishes — The time for cooling — Bactericidal 
 properties— Immediate and continued cooling essential for milk 
 destined for the cities. 
 
 Chapter IX. Milking 91 
 
 Preparation — The barn cleaned, the cows groomed, and the throat 
 latch adjusted — Washing hands — The milking suit— The position of 
 the milking pail — Milk contaminated through accident kept from 
 the general supply — No unnecessary persons present — Milk pail 
 to be covered while carried to and from the bam — The place for 
 straining— Receiving cans covered — Blankets and jackets for the 
 cans— The dairy thermometer. 
 
 Chapter X. The Dairy Boom and the Ice House . . 95 
 
 Reserved for one purpose — No storage — Daily cleaning — Windows 
 screened — No direct entrance from the barn — The ice house — 
 Supply of ice absolutely necessary — A good spring only auxiliary. 
 
 Chapter XI. Utensils 97 
 
 The manufacture, cleaning, and storage a factor in the production of 
 milk— A small number— The importance of prompt and thorough 
 cleaning — Sterilization effected by boiling or baking — The dangers 
 from infected wash water — Storage outdoors to be avoided — Sun ex- 
 posure not practicable— The narrow-topped milking pail with a 
 cover — Carrying milk in uncovered pails — The strainer cannot 
 atone for previous carelessness — Metal strainer with wire mesh — 
 Cloths and absorbent cotton — The receiving can is the responsibility 
 of the dealer— Cleaned and sterilized when delivered to the farmer 
 —Milk cans to be used only for milk— The milking stool. 
 
 Chapter XII. The Bottling of Milk . . . .105 
 
 Bottled versus dipped milk— The manner of bottling— Safeguards 
 against exposure — Bottling room isolated, adapted to flushing and 
 steaming, and protected against dust and flies— The sterilizer- 
 Situated between the bottling room and the wash room — Used for 
 storage of bottles — Persons bottling should be carefully selected — 
 5 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS-CONTINUED 
 
 Personal cleanliness required — Clean working suits — Other work- 
 men barred from bottling room — Capping and covering take place 
 simultaneously with filling— The overflow from the bottling table — 
 Deep packing boxes with covers — The cleaning of bottles— Steriliza- 
 tion necessary— Misuse of milk bottles— Bottling for_ the small 
 farmer— The use of a cooler ; what it accomplishes— Aeration and 
 its questionable value. 
 
 Chapter XIII. The Opportunity of the Dealer . .114 
 
 The capitalist of the milk business— His large investment— Inter- 
 mediary between producer and consumer — The personal relation 
 between farmer and dealer— The latter's power and influence in a 
 dairy community — His own establishment an object lesson to his 
 farmers — A model cow barn and dairy as a school of instruction and 
 experiment station— Hospital barn and quarantine station — The 
 care of milk at the country receiving station— The pumping of milk 
 an objectionable feature— A suggested remedy— The receiving and 
 the bottling room— The sterilized can and what it makes possible. 
 
 Chapter XIV. Market Milk 123 
 
 Indifference of the consumers — A problem ultimately for the State — 
 A simple plan for improvement — What it requires of dealer and 
 farmer— The results to be expected— Disposing of the "animal 
 odor " bugaboo— The groundless fear of animal heat. 
 
 Chapter XV. The Duty of the Consumer . . .128 
 
 The other end of the milk problem— The adoption of esthetic and 
 hygienic precautions— Safeguards against the conveyance of disease 
 —Supervision of the family supply— Public confidence in a pure 
 milk supply— Proper acknowledgment of the efforts of milk dealers 
 and farmers— The production of a bottle of clean milk and the assur- 
 ance to the consumer— The encouragement of efforts to improve the 
 milk supply— The progressive milk dealer— What the extra price 
 means— The family physician and the health officials— The house- 
 keeper's knowledge of milk— Milk as a food— What sours milk- 
 Clean earth and bacterial dirt— Clarified milk— Care of milk in the 
 household— The public ice-box in apartment houses— Milk in a 
 separate compartment — Served after the manner of coffee — Pro- 
 tected against flies— The value of pasteurization and sterilization — 
 The cleaning of milk vessels— The milk bottle— The great loss 
 suffered by milk dealers— Misuse of the milk bottle a grave danger 
 —Epidemics— Cleaning the bottle*— Protecting the bottles against 
 contamination. 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Drawing Vie Foremilk Frontispiece 
 
 PACING PAGE 
 
 Bacteriological Analyses of Clean and Unclean Milk . . 12 
 
 A Typical Bad Ceiling 13 
 
 Farmers Delivering Milk to the Shipping Station ... 22 
 
 Equipment for Distributing Sanitary Milk 23 
 
 A Loft Barn 36 
 
 The Daily Removal of Manure 37 
 
 Interior of a Modern Barn 44 
 
 After the Daily Cleaning 45 
 
 A Shed Barn 54 
 
 A Barn Superintendent's Office 55 
 
 Washing the Flanks and Udder 68 
 
 Part of the Daily Routine 69 
 
 A Common Form of Stanchion 72 
 
 Milking at a Modern Dairy Farm 73 
 
 Bottling at a Home Dairy 86 
 
 A Box Sterilizer 87 
 
 Steam Box for Sterilizing Cans 102 
 
 7 
 
LIST OF I L L U S T R A TIONS-CONTINUED 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 Cleaning Cans at a Country Beceiving Stition .... 103 
 
 Sterilizer in Use at Large Establishments 118 
 
 Cleaning Bottles at a Large Dairy 119 
 
 A Modern Bottling Boom 134 
 
 Filling Bottles 135 
 
 The Barn of a Small Farmer Who Made Certified 
 
 Milk 142 
 
 Hauling Ice to the Dairy 143 
 
PREFACE 
 
 BECAUSE of the presence of dirt in 
 milk, bacteriology becomes a neces- 
 sary factor in the production of milk. 
 
 It has been the aim of the author to set 
 forth practical methods for the exclusion of 
 bacteria from milk. In the following pages, 
 there is incorporated a system of operations 
 which has been successful in materially re- 
 ducing the bacterial contamination of milk, 
 from the moment it is drawn from the cow 
 until it is used by the consumer. 
 
 To the veterinarian, the dairyman, and the 
 agriculturist it is stated that all intention of 
 invading their spheres of work is disclaimed. 
 The purpose is to render available the 
 special knowledge of the bacteriologist on 
 the ways of preventing contamination, and 
 regarding this in the light of a common good 
 it is hoped that these special workers will 
 receive it in a spirit of co-operation. 
 
 The work in the field which supplied tHe 
 data for the book was performed under a 
 grant from the Kockefeller Institute for 
 
 9 
 
 ft * M. COLLEpf s ** j mnfi 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 Medical Research. This work was under the 
 direction and supervision of Dr. Park and 
 formed a part of the movement for the im- 
 provement of New York city's milk supply, 
 conducted by Dr. Park, with the co-operation 
 of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Re- 
 search, for the Department of Health of the 
 City of New York. 
 
 In the performance of that work and in the 
 making of this book, the author has been at 
 all times indebted to Dr. Park for sugges- 
 tions and criticism, and is glad of this oppor- 
 tunity of making public acknowledgment of 
 the benefit derived from working under his 
 personal direction. 
 
 To the many gentlemen who courteously 
 offered their establishments as experiment 
 stations, acknowledgment is also due, and 
 to Walter W. Law, Esq., the proprietor of 
 Briarcliff Farms, and to Mr. Loton Horton, 
 the President of the Sheffield Farms-Slaw- 
 son-Decker Co. for their interest and encour- 
 agement during the progress of the work. 
 
 10 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 A PURE milk supply has ever been a 
 recognized desideratum, and the best 
 efforts of sanitarians and public offi- 
 cials have for many years been devoted 
 toward its attainment. The universal use 
 of milk as a food, and the important place it 
 holds in the diet of the world, have justified 
 every effort toward rendering it available 
 and wholesome for human consumption. 
 Heretofore, the insistence on a proper nutri- 
 tive value and the prohibition of the use of 
 preservatives have been the principal objects 
 sought, but with the development of the 
 science of bacteria, there has arisen a new 
 and a most important consideration concern- 
 ing milk. Good milk can no longer be de- 
 cided on the ground that it contains a re- 
 quired percentage of solids and is free from 
 deleterious chemicals, but it must also be 
 subject to the test of bacterial contamina- 
 tion. Since bacterial contamination may re- 
 sult in the conveyance of infectious diseases, 
 such as typhoid, diphtheria, scarlet fever, 
 
 11 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 and tuberculosis, it will be admitted that it 
 is a factor deserving attention. 
 
 By the ordinary observer impure milk is 
 recognized by its containing coarse dirt, hair, 
 etc., which settles at the bottom of the can 
 or bottle, also by its sour taste or its curdling 
 when heated, and by its emitting the odor of 
 decomposition, But the absence of all of 
 these by no means indicates that the milk is 
 pure or safe. Milk may be entirely unfit for 
 food when none of these conditions are pres- 
 ent, since the chief dangers in milk are due 
 to the bacteria which it contains, and bac- 
 teria are far too small to be seen by the 
 unaided eye, being among the smallest and 
 simplest of all living things. They much 
 resemble the cells of which plants are com- 
 posed, and require moisture, warmth, and 
 food to grow. Milk is the only article of food 
 in which nearly all bacteria grow rapidly, 
 and in it they multiply at a favorable temper- 
 ature, i. c, about blood heat, in an almost 
 incredible manner. From a single germ as 
 many as 200 may be produced in three hours; 
 
 12 
 
BACTERIOLOGICAL ANALYSES OF CLEAN 
 AND UNCLEAN MILK. 
 
Introduction 
 
 10,000 in six hours; 10,000,000 in nine honrs, 
 and 2,000,000,000 in eighteen hours. As the 
 bacteria grow and increase in numbers they 
 impair the nutritive properties of the milk, 
 and in this way injure it as a food, and, what 
 is much more important, they produce many 
 new substances, some of which are poison- 
 ous. It is the result of the activities of bac- 
 teria which causes milk to sour and produces 
 in it bad taste and odors. But long before 
 milk has become sour to the taste, it may 
 contain enormous numbers of bacteria and 
 has usually become unwholesome, and pro- 
 bably a source of great danger. The number 
 of bacteria which may be found in milk is 
 almost beyond belief. This is directly pro- 
 portionate to the age of the milk, the amount 
 of dirt and filth it contains, and the height 
 of the temperature at which it has been kept. 
 The number of bacteria is, therefore, the best 
 means of determining whether the milk is 
 clean and fresh and whether it has been 
 properly handled, and it tells with certainty 
 the story of mistakes or neglect. 
 
 13 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 Where do these bacteria come from? Do 
 they do any good? Do they do any harm? 
 These are the questions which are naturally 
 asked. Most of the bacteria fortunately are 
 not those which induce disease. They are 
 the bacteria associated with dirt. They 
 come from dirty cows, stables, hands, and 
 pails, the dust of the stables, of the atmos- 
 phere of the milk house or creamery where 
 milk is mixed and bottled. But these dirt 
 bacteria are not the only ones which find 
 their way into milk. The germs which cause 
 various infectious diseases, such as typhoid 
 fever, scarlet fever, tuberculosis, diphtheria, 
 and mouth and foot disease, live and 
 rapidly multiply in milk. Every year epi- 
 demics occur which have been traced to milk 
 contaminated by ignorant or careless milk- 
 men, who have infected their milk from their 
 dirty hands or the dirty water, or in other 
 careless ways. This, of course, is entirely un- 
 necessary and can be prevented. The extent 
 of this danger may be judged by the fact that 
 two years ago there was published in one of 
 
 14 
 
Introduction 
 
 the medical journals a report upon three 
 hundred and thirty outbreaks of epidemic 
 diseases traced to milk; one hundred and 
 ninety-five of these were epidemics of ty- 
 phoid fever, in one hundred and forty-seven 
 of which the disease prevailed at the dairy 
 or farm; in sixty-seven, it was due to con- 
 tamination of well-water; in twenty-four, 
 employees at the farm were acting as 
 nurses, and in ten, they were working while 
 still sick. There were ninety-nine epi- 
 demics of scarlet fever, in sixty-eight of 
 which the source of infection was traced 
 to the illness of persons at the dairy; in 
 seventeen, the employees were themselves 
 suffering from scarlet fever, and in ten, they 
 were acting as nurses to scarlet fever pa- 
 tients. In other cases the mode of infection 
 was through the storage of milk near in- 
 fected rooms, or the poison was brought by 
 cans or bottles from patients' houses. There 
 were thirty-six epidemics of diphtheria, in 
 thirteen of which the disease existed at the 
 farm or dairy. When it is remembered that 
 
 15 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 some of these epidemics have numbered hun- 
 dreds of cases with many deaths, the great 
 importance of this is apparent and the 
 amount of mischief which is possible through 
 the neglect of a single person seems ap- 
 palling. Most of this harm results because 
 the men who are handling the milk are 
 entirely ignorant of the manner in which 
 milk becomes infected, and consequently 
 fail to take the simple precautions which 
 would be quite sufficient to prevent such a 
 calamity. 
 
 In the spring of 1901 it was determined to 
 attempt, through the Department of Health 
 and other agencies, to improve the milk of 
 New York city by preventing the excessive 
 and unnecessary bacterial contamination 
 then occurring. At the same time, through 
 funds supplied by the Rockefeller Institute 
 for Medical Research, physicians were ap- 
 pointed to study carefully the influence upon 
 the health of infants of the filth bacteria and 
 the bacterial products existing in the milk 
 ordinarily consumed in New York city. In 
 
 16 
 
Introduction 
 
 addition, Dr. Belcher, who had already be- 
 come greatly interested in the bacterial side 
 of the milk problem, was authorized to con- 
 duct an investigation at the sources of pro- 
 duction. This meant practically the trans- 
 porting of a laboratory to dairy farms and 
 creamery buildings and the performance of 
 scientific labor amid the actual conditions 
 attending the production of milk. In the 
 two years devoted to this task, thousands of 
 experiments were made and every detail of 
 milk production subjected to exhaustive and 
 critical study and examination. The results 
 of this research were placed at the service of 
 farmers and milkmen, and it is gratifying 
 to record that in many instances these busi- 
 ness men hastened to adopt precautions 
 against contamination. In a spirit of co- 
 operation, the dairy farmer, the city dealer, 
 and the bacteriologist joined forces in an 
 effort to produce milk free from serious bac- 
 terial defilement. Dr. Belcher's method was 
 the aseptic, as opposed to the antiseptic; the 
 insistence upon cleanliness, barns free from 
 
 17 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 dust, cows without dirt upon their bodies, 
 utensils sterilized, milkers washed and clad 
 in clean garments; these requirements and 
 effective cooling sufficing to produce, at 
 moderate cost, a food article known to be 
 safe and wholesome. 
 
 The practicability and the commercial 
 value of such a system of milk production 
 has not been without demonstration. The 
 dealers and dairy farmers, who under the 
 supervision of Dr. Belcher introduced the 
 aseptic method and produced milk with re- 
 duced bacterial contamination, received cer- 
 tification from the Milk Commission of the 
 County Medical Society and their product be- 
 came known as " Certified Milk." 
 
 This superior milk found a ready sale, and 
 the increasing demand for it is a hopeful in- 
 dication that the public will make due ac- 
 knowledgment of the efforts of progressive 
 farmers and dealers. The public may rest as- 
 sured that just as much clean, wholesome 
 milk will be produced as can be sold, but a 
 general appreciation of the difference be- 
 
 18 
 
Introduction 
 
 tween good and bad milk and a demand for 
 improvement must come first. 
 
 In the general solution of the milk 
 problem in large cities, some help may come 
 through legislation. Certainly the Health 
 Department of the State and city should be 
 given the right to inspect farms and demand 
 those things which are necessary in order to 
 produce a wholesome milk and to exclude 
 contagious disease. Sufficient improve- 
 ments, however, are not to be brought about 
 by compulsion of the dealers, but by educat- 
 ing them up to the point of voluntarily doing 
 better work. It is to the co-operation of the 
 dealers and farmers that we must look for 
 an absolutely pure milk supply, and behind 
 all this must be a public appreciation of good 
 milk. 
 
 One of the most valuable results of Dr. 
 Belcher's work has been to bring about in 
 the dealers a new feeling of proper responsi- 
 bility to the farmers and to the public. Many 
 of them are convinced of their ability to aid 
 in giving the public pure milk, and they have 
 
 19 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 co-operated in a most commendable manner. 
 Some of the dealers have built ice houses and 
 have supplied ice to farmers who could not 
 afford it, and they have in every way encour- 
 aged the farmers to improve their barns and 
 have furnished them with materials which 
 made these things possible. Their co-opera- 
 tion is a very important factor in any move- 
 ment to secure pure milk, because as the cap- 
 italists they are in a position to carry out 
 improvements both at the farms, the cream- 
 eries, during transportation, and in the local 
 deliveries of milk. In order that farmers 
 might not be tempted to mix the milk from 
 cows which appear, in any way, to be sick, 
 with the rest of their milk, some of the 
 dealers paid the farmers full price for the 
 milk from sick cows and had it thrown away. 
 To avoid the danger of spreading contagious 
 disease through their milk, they have en- 
 couraged the farmers to report any instance 
 of such disease in their employees or fami- 
 lies and have provided for the handling of 
 milk by others during the period of illness. 
 
 20 
 
Introduction 
 
 Great improvements in transportation are 
 possible and here the railroads should be 
 made to feel their responsibility to the pub- 
 lic. They should do all in their power to 
 make it easy, not only for the large dealers 
 but for the individual farmers, to ship milk 
 under suitable conditions, and they should 
 try to arrange their schedules so that milk 
 can be delivered in New York in such a con- 
 dition as not to be a menace to public health. 
 The New York Health Department has 
 already made a rule that no milk shall be 
 delivered in the city the temperature of 
 which stands over 50° F. If enforced, this 
 will insure proper icing of milk on all cars, 
 and the rule will be enforced if the people 
 who consume milk will give the officials their 
 moral support. 
 
 Milk certification at the present time 
 promises a solution of some of the difficul- 
 ties. It seems to be necessary to have a 
 third party, composed of some body of per- 
 sons who stands between the dealers and the 
 public, and who are able to give an assur- 
 
 21 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 ance to the public that milk has been 
 handled and produced under proper hygienic 
 conditions. Such an assurance is now pro- 
 vided in certificates issued in several of the 
 larger cities. In New York this certificate 
 is given by the County Medical Society. This 
 society has appointed a commission to pass 
 upon the milk supplied by the different deal- 
 ers. The commission is composed of profes- 
 sional men of the highest standing, who with 
 the reports furnished by the inspector and 
 the bacteriologist are qualified to judge. 
 
 The greatest force in the attainment of an 
 improved milk supply, however, rests in pub- 
 lic opinion. It is for the consumers in gen- 
 eral and the leaders of the community in par- 
 ticular to decide this problem of pure food. 
 The milk dealers are ready and eager to put 
 on sale a better commodity, just as soon as 
 there is a demand, and it remains for the 
 physicians, the directors of hospitals and 
 other institutions, the teachers of domestic 
 economy, and philanthropic men and wo- 
 men to encourage the good work. There is 
 
 22 
 
Introduction 
 
 need for an educational movement advocat- 
 ing an additional payment in return for the 
 observance of proper hygienic and esthetic 
 precautions, and it should not be forgotten 
 that the improvement of the milk used by 
 those who live in comfort and luxury tends 
 to the betterment of that served to the poor. 
 
 THE TRANSPORTATION OF MILK. 
 
 The great distance from which milk is now 
 brought to New York is hardly appreciated 
 by the public. On the north, farmers send 
 milk almost from the Canadian border, and 
 on the west from almost as far as Buffalo. 
 When milk was consumed on the farm or 
 delivered to a neighboring town, simple pre- 
 cautions sufficed to supply a fairly whole- 
 some milk, but now that distances have be- 
 come so great, much more care and thought 
 must be given to its collection and transpor- 
 tation. The railroads bringing milk to New 
 York designate two forms of milk trains — 
 the long haul trains, transporting milk one 
 hundred and fifty to three hundred miles, 
 
 23 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 and short haul trains transporting it only 
 from fifty to one hundred and fifty miles. 
 One would naturally expect that the rail- 
 roads would endeavor to bring the milk to 
 the city in the very best possible condition. 
 While this is true of some of the railroads it 
 is not true of others. Some seem to assume 
 that all they need to do is to get the milk 
 to New York in a salable condition. If the 
 milk is transported very long distances 
 great precautions are taken to preserve it, 
 while if transported from adjacent counties 
 hardly any attention at all is paid to it. Thus 
 it comes about that some of the very worst 
 milk delivered in New York is milk brought 
 from the nearest places. 
 
 In the summer of 1901, the writer noticed 
 that an ordinary freight car was left by the 
 morning train on a siding about eighty miles 
 from New York city, to receive the milk of a 
 number of separate farms from the adjacent 
 country. The day was the second of July, 
 when the mercury ranged from 85° to 98*. 
 At three o'clock in the afternoon, the far- 
 
 24 
 
Introduction 
 
 mers began to drive up with their cans of 
 milk. They themselves had to drive from 
 three to six miles in the hot sun, and so de- 
 livered the milk already warmed considera- 
 bly above the point at which they had taken 
 it from their springs. From three to five 
 o'clock, the cans of milk were standing in the 
 car without ice, the thermometer in the car 
 registering 98°. At five o'clock the car was 
 attached to the train drawn to New York, 
 and the milk delivered on the platform, 
 never having been cooled in any way during 
 its transit. 
 
 The example cited is not an isolated one, 
 for similar conditions were found at other 
 stations on this road. From the observa- 
 tions made last summer, it appeared that 
 fully 10 per cent, of the milk carried by this 
 road during the hottest months was never 
 iced- at all during transportation, and much 
 more was iced but very slightly. Milk han- 
 dled in this way in hot weather is often so 
 changed that it is unfit to be sold, and is re- 
 fused by the dealers. When, however, the 
 
 25 
 
Glean Milk 
 
 changes have not gone far enough to render 
 it unsalable it is delivered to the groceries 
 and sold by them to their customers. The 
 officials said that the individual farmers 
 were responsible, as they should have iced 
 their milk, while the farmers said as individ- 
 uals it was impracticable for them to 
 properly ice their milk, as they were only 
 provided with an ordinary freight car which 
 was allowed to stand out in the hot sun in 
 the middle of the afternoon. On the same 
 siding, in marked contrast to the car above 
 described, was the milk car of one of the New 
 York dealers, which was not an ordinary 
 freight car, but one made for the purpose of 
 transporting milk. This dealer, taking his 
 milk directly from the creamery, placed it in 
 the car with about three tons of ice. His 
 milk was thus transported to New York in a 
 thoroughly cooled condition. 
 
 The manner of local delivery of milk is 
 also important. Most of the railroads de- 
 posit their milk upon the station platforms 
 between 11 and 12 p. if. Here much of it 
 
 26 
 
Introduction 
 
 remains until 4 or 5 A. m. before it is collected 
 by the delivery wagons. Many of these 
 wagons use no ice, and even milk which is 
 properly cooled when it arrives, may become 
 in this time so warm as to be greatly injured 
 by active fermentation which such a temper- 
 ature induces. Both the railroad transpor- 
 tation and local delivery can be accom- 
 plished with much less danger of contamina- 
 tion if the milk is placed in sealed bottles 
 at the creamery. This is the best method 
 if only the bottles themselves have been 
 properly sterilized. 
 
 William Hallock Park, M.D. 
 
 Research Laboratory of the Department 
 of Health of the City of New York. 
 
 V 
 
THE COW YARD AND 
 THE PASTURE 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE visitor to a dairy farm, seeking a 
 knowledge of the conditions there 
 and the methods in operation, would 
 naturally come upon them in a certain order 
 of precedence. The first thing would be the 
 pasture lands and the grounds immediate to 
 the cow stables and the dairy house. An 
 observation of these would be followed by a 
 study of the buildings, their construction and 
 equipment; then the herd, the workers, and 
 the utensils. Once the milking began, the 
 milk would be followed through all its va- 
 rious handlings. An order similar to this 
 has been adopted in this book. Starting with 
 the cow yard as the first factor in the con- 
 tamination of milk, the other component 
 parts of the establishment are taken in the 
 order in which a visitor would usually meet 
 them. 
 
 It is a common dream picture, that of a 
 cow barn perched on a grassy knoll, and the 
 
 28 
 
The Cow Yard and Pasture 
 
 herd turned out to pasture in broad, open 
 fields of greensward stretching away from 
 the door of the building, but beautiful and 
 visionary as this may appear in the books, it 
 is not so uncommon a realization. 
 
 In the Delaware Valley, in the State of 
 New York, the usual plan of a dairy farm 
 locates the cow barn in one corner of a half- 
 acre lot, into which, after milking, the herd 
 is turned, thence to wend its way to the 
 broader upland pastures. At modern pro- 
 gressive establishments the field surround- 
 ing or adjacent to the cow barn where the 
 herd collects at milking time is always large 
 and spacious, so that it may with justice be 
 claimed that the cows pass directly from the 
 pasture to their stalls. 
 
 Providing adequate pasture and an ample 
 enclosure for the cows to collect in, an enclo- 
 sure which will answer as an exercise ground 
 in winter, means that the farmer has done 
 much toward the cleanliness of his cows. It 
 is a general observation that in summer, 
 when the cows are outdoors day and night, 
 
 29 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 they are clean, and through no exertion of 
 the herdsman. 
 
 The reason for this is simple, and must be 
 evident to any one after a moment's thought. 
 The cow, naturally a cleanly animal, avoids 
 pollution if she can, and when at liberty in 
 the fields not only does so, but carefully 
 grooms her own body. It is only when the 
 cow is treated like a pig or tied down like a 
 prisoner in a loathsome dungeon that she 
 becomes dirty. Nobody asks the farmer to 
 clean his cows; they themselves will do that 
 if given half a chance; but he should play 
 fair with them, not lead them into a muddy, 
 filthy yard, where each step splashes manure 
 half way up their flanks, or pen them in a 
 space only large enough for a sow and her 
 litter. 
 
 The practise of enclosing cows in the space 
 between two wings of a barn, or in a narrow 
 yard formed by a fence around three sides 
 of a building, is responsible for so much 
 defilement of cows that for his own advan- 
 tage, pecuniary and otherwise, a dairy far- 
 
 30 
 
The Coio Yard and Pasture 
 
 mer should abandon it and provide a large 
 field connecting with the cow barn, and spa- 
 cious enough, first, to be used as a gathering 
 place at milking time, and in winter, as an 
 exercise ground, and, secondly, to give the 
 animals a fair chance to keep clean. This 
 large field has so much to do with the clean- 
 liness of the herd that it will surely be re- 
 quired, when dairy farmers are licensed by 
 the State. 
 
 If a man will not dispense with the small 
 enclosure, at least he should keep it in a san- 
 itary condition, so that not only the herd, but 
 also the members of his family, may cross it 
 without suffering contamination. Such a 
 place is usually a quagmire, boasting of 
 sundry pools due to defective drainage or 
 formed by the overflow from the water 
 trough, with manure lying scattered about or 
 gathered in a huge heap, all of which attract 
 flies, which, besides a great irritation to 
 cows, are, with milk and water, the chief car- 
 riers of typhoid. Across this strong-smelling 
 area warm milk in uncovered pails will be 
 
 31 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 carried, and this exposure and the exposure 
 to manure in the stalls is a source of the so- 
 called "animal odor," supposed by dairy 
 farmers to be a characteristic of fresh milk. 
 
 A soft and muddy surface should be 
 drained, the pools filled in, and a new surface 
 made with firm, hard material, such as a man 
 uses to make the paths around his house. 
 Some material is usually available, and at 
 moderate cost — crushed stone, gravel, sand, 
 or the ashes from the furnace or the stove. 
 Some farmers cover the yard with a mate- 
 rial which, being useful as a fertilizer, can 
 be gathered up with the manure, when the 
 cow yard is cleaned. 
 
 The evils of a bad cow yard will sometimes 
 be reproduced in a pasture lot. Constant 
 use has destroyed the turf, and the surface 
 becomes so trampled and cut up that the field 
 is little better than a muddy yard, resulting 
 in a defilement of the cows, which could be 
 avoided by changing the pasture frequently. 
 
 32 
 
MANURE 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 MANUEE at a dairy farm is unavoid- 
 able, but the evil of its presence can 
 be minimized. Admittedly the chief 
 obstacle in the securing of clean milk, the 
 objections to it need hardly be stated. 
 
 It is one of the causes of the " animal 
 odor," to remove which farmers aerate so 
 conscientiously; it pollutes the premises, 
 attracts flies, offers a breeding place for 
 germs, and is a serious inconvenience when 
 women of the family do the milking. By its 
 very nature it is the most offensive contam- 
 ination, and the mere proximity, not to men- 
 tion actual presence of it in milk, should ren- 
 der abhorent that fluid as an article of food. 
 Although the dairy farmers to a man recog- 
 nize this and each stoutly maintains that his 
 milk is free from it, yet in how many cases 
 are the precautions against it woefully inad- 
 equate? Its value as a fertilizer has compli- 
 cated the problem of keeping it out of milk. 
 In order to collect it, the farmer carefully 
 
 33 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 accumulates it in a manure " gutter " until 
 the gutter and its contents are ready to over- 
 flow, when he pitches it out of the barn win- 
 dow, to form for months a small mountain of 
 putrid matter, and not until the summer 
 boarders are due to arrive is it carted away 
 to the fields. 
 
 In the interests of public decency, for the 
 betterment of the product he sells, and from 
 a sense of pride in using cleanly methods, the 
 farmer should guard against manure defiling 
 his milk. It is not a difficult, costly, or com- 
 plicated undertaking, and if he practises the 
 maxim " An ounce of prevention is worth a 
 pound of cure," he will find the manure prob- 
 lem solving itself. 
 
 Much can be done by providing an ade- 
 quate cow yard and by the use of an effective 
 stanchion in a suitable stall. These would 
 insure the cleanliness of the cows. Then 
 there is the removal of manure and its 
 proper storage. 
 
 Manure ought to be removed from the 
 stalls at least once a day, but preferably 
 
 34 
 
Manure 
 
 before each milking, and when the farmer 
 handles manure let him dispose of it once 
 and for all. With the same time and labor 
 he expends in drawing the daily droppings 
 into the gutter he could just as well shovel 
 them into a wheelbarrow (preferably water- 
 tight, in order to prevent dripping and loss 
 of the urine), and empty this, not just outside 
 the door, but in the adjoining field, or at least 
 at a safe distance from any building forming 
 part of the dairy or the home. This method 
 of field storage is already in use to some 
 extent, the manure being stacked beneath a 
 cover on posts, but in the case of this shed 
 there should be left room between the top 
 of the pile and the cover of the shed for the 
 circulation of air. 
 
 The best disposal of manure, and that 
 which is practised at dairy farms where mod- 
 ern methods are in use, is to cart it to the 
 fields daily. This not only means one han- 
 dling, but it places the stuff where it ceases 
 to be obnoxious and becomes of use as a fer- 
 tilizer. In the removal of manure a metal 
 
 35 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 watertight cart, such as is used by street 
 cleaners, is suggested as a good vehicle, pre- 
 venting dripping and also capable of being 
 more easily cleaned than a wooden one. 
 
 36 
 
THECOW BARN 
 
 CHAPTER III. — IN GENERAL. 
 
 WHEN the farmer, on the approach of 
 winter, puts his herd indoors to af- 
 ford them shelter against the cold 
 and stormy weather, he exposes them, in all 
 too many cases, to dangers hardly less fatal. 
 Even when there is a building which may be 
 truthfully and accurately described as a cow 
 barn, it is seldom designed and constructed 
 to suit the peculiar needs of dairy cattle, 
 while in the vast majority of instances the 
 winter quarters of the herd are in a combin- 
 ation structure used for feed storage, horse 
 stable, wagon barn, and general rubbish dis- 
 posal. Furthermore, in such a building the 
 herd will be allotted the worst place, usually 
 the basement or ground floor, where, beneath 
 a low ceiling and with scant window space, 
 they must live for months, breathing poison- 
 ous air and subjected to the noise and dis- 
 turbance made by the other occupants of the 
 building. For animals whom nature in- 
 tended to wander at will in the peace and 
 
 32! 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 quiet of the open fields no more cruel treat- 
 ment in the guise of intended kindness could 
 be devised, nor could the dairy farmer's 
 worst enemy concoct a scheme more injuri- 
 ous to his pocketbook. The dairy should be 
 both his pride and profit; the animals repre- 
 sent a large investment, and are usually his 
 most valuable possession; their yield of milk 
 and butter and the calves they bear form his 
 principal source of income. Whether a herd 
 is profitable or not depends on the general 
 well being of the animals, and yet in so im- 
 portant a factor as the cow stable are so 
 many farmers wilfully negligent or indiffer- 
 ent. They well know that the cow is not a 
 tough and rugged animal, but a tender and 
 sensitive one, easily affected by surrounding 
 conditions, and wonderfully responsive to 
 good or bad treatment. Granted that cows 
 should be housed during cold weather, it 
 seems only reasonable to demand that during 
 the period indoors they should not be 
 deprived of the necessities of a healthy exis- 
 tence. When outdoors the cows have suffi- 
 
 38 
 
The Cow Barn 
 
 cient light and air, an opportunity for needed 
 exercise, and the liberty to keep clean, and 
 these things must be provided during the 
 stay indoors if the farmer would do justice 
 to his herd and at the same time swell his 
 pocketbook to its proper thickness. 
 
 The specifications for a cow barn must 
 come from the experts in that branch of 
 architecture, but in the interests of clean 
 milk, which are identical with the interests 
 of dairying in general, some ideas about the 
 construction may be advanced. In the first 
 place the building should be designed, con- 
 structed, and used solely and entirely as a 
 stable for dairy cattle; it should not be used 
 as a storage place for feed, vehicles, or uten- 
 sils, nor as a stable for other animals. This 
 singleness of purpose means that the needs 
 of the cow will be the principal considera- 
 tion, and these needs, important though they 
 be, call for no grand or complicated struc- 
 ture. The cow barn should be practically a 
 shed, with a continuous row of windows in 
 the side walls and a Monitor skylight in the 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 roof, extending the entire length of the build- 
 ing. This form of structure insures an abun- 
 dance of light and air, and means a reduced 
 dirt surface and consequently less cleaning, 
 while its small cost and ease of construction 
 make it feasible for even the poorest farmer. 
 It also encourages the practise of small herds 
 in separate buildings, and is likely to secure 
 more spacious stalls for individual cows. As 
 against the tenement house style of barn, 
 the shed means that a farmer's eggs are not 
 all in one basket. In case of fire or wind 
 storm all his possessions are not imperiled 
 through being under one roof. Such a build- 
 ing practically solves the problems of light, 
 air, and ventilation. The glass area insures 
 a well-lighted interior, the Monitor skylight 
 contributes light and also provides an outlet 
 for the warm, stale air, while a supply of 
 fresh air is pouring in through cracks and 
 openings which are innumerable in a build- 
 ing constructed after the common style of a 
 barn. Airtight construction is not needed in 
 a cow barn, for it is a great mistake to keep 
 
 40 
 
The Cow Bam 
 
 dairy cattle in a hothouse temperature. A 
 herd of cows in a loosely built shed will 
 thrive better in the coldest weather than if 
 maintained in a tightly built, steam-heated 
 barn, with an elaborate scheme for ventila- 
 tion and the regulation of temperature. 
 
 The shed style of barn, from its simplicity, 
 means small cost and a greater facility of 
 construction, things which should induce 
 farmers to break up the great herds stabled 
 in one building and adopt instead the custom 
 of small herds isolated in separate barns. 
 Further, its skeleton interior construction 
 and the absence of a ceiling mean a greatly 
 diminished dust surface. There will be no 
 dust sifting from the lofts above, which 
 means a decrease in the amount of dirt in the 
 cow barn, and this helps toward the general 
 cleanliness of the place itself, the animals 
 therein, and the milk there exposed. 
 
 A cow barn should be designed for a small 
 herd, perhaps twenty, and it is preferable, 
 whenever possible, that they be stalled in a 
 single line. This arrangement of stalls has 
 
 41 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 advantages which should recommend it to 
 dairy farmers who believe in having the very 
 best, if it does cost a little more. It is pat- 
 terned after the pavilion system which is fol- 
 lowed in constructing modern hospitals, and 
 what is beneficial in the matter of light and 
 air for human beings in illness may safely 
 and advantageously be provided for dairy 
 cattle, especially the breeds whose tendency 
 to disease and disablement is in direct ratio 
 with their value. The single line barn pro- 
 vides a maximum of light and air of the 
 purest kind for each animal, it makes pos- 
 sible a thorough sun exposure of the interior, 
 and the hygienic value of these two factors 
 in a dwelling, whether for humans or dairy 
 cattle, cannot be overestimated. The double 
 line of stalls, however, will appeal more fa- 
 vorably to most farmers, and in connection 
 with this plan it is recommended that the 
 cows be stalled tail to tail. This reduces the 
 chance of infection by coughing across, and 
 also places the heads to the windows, there- 
 by affording a better supply of pure air. 
 
 42 
 
The Coiv Bam 
 
 All interior construction, such as the roof 
 supports and the stalls, should be on the 
 skeleton order, because of the advantage de- 
 rived from a reduced dust surface, the 
 greater ease in cleaning, and the absence of 
 anything like partitions to stop the circula- 
 tion of air. 
 
 THE FLOOR. 
 
 Cement is the best material for a floor. 
 
 It is more durable than wood, and does 
 not offer cracks and crevices for the deposit 
 of dust, is more readily and thoroughly 
 cleaned, since it is adapted to flushing with a 
 hose, and has the great advantage of adapt- 
 ability to draining. For those who consider it 
 too hard for the cows to stand or lie upon, 
 the suggestion is made of providing wooden 
 flooring for the stalls. This question of stall 
 flooring is fully discussed later under the 
 remarks on the stalls. 
 
 In laying the floor provision should be 
 made for a slope away from the rear of the 
 stalls and the construction of a urine gutter. 
 
 43 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 It is earnestly advised that there be no 
 manure gutter, but, instead, a practical, use- 
 ful urine gutter. 
 
 The manure gutter usually amounts to a 
 dirty, ill-smelling hole in the floor, as it sel- 
 dom accomplishes its intended purpose and 
 is of service only to the man who removes 
 the manure, when he must take a day off to 
 do so. It does not deserve the name of gut- 
 ter, for it fails to carry off the contents; 
 neither does it facilitate the separation of 
 the manure and urine and the collecting of 
 the latter. Moreover it is a rare thing to 
 find a cow and a stall fitting so exactly that 
 the droppings fall directly into the gutter; 
 usually they fall on either side of it, so the 
 abolishment of the manure gutter would be 
 only a slight change of actual conditions, 
 while the substitution of a wheelbarrow in 
 place of the gutter as a temporary storage 
 place would be an improvement in the mat- 
 ter of cleanliness, and count toward the 
 prevention of an offensive odor in the milk. 
 
 The urine gutter, on the contrary, is use- 
 
 44 
 
The Cow Bam 
 
 ful and necessary, and can readily be made 
 to accomplish its intended purpose, which is 
 to facilitate the separation of urine and its 
 collection, to become available as a fer- 
 tilizer. 
 
 In building the urine gutter suggestion is 
 made of laying the floor after the plan used 
 for city streets, which slope from the center 
 toward the sidewalks, where the curb forms 
 a gutter, which is pitched lengthwise. As a 
 result, the rain first flows toward the gutter 
 and then follows it to the catch basin at the 
 intersection of the two thoroughfares. In a 
 similar way the urine could be carried off. 
 With the floor sloping from the rear of the 
 stalls, the urine will naturally flow toward 
 the base of the slope, where it runs into the 
 gutter and follows the pitch of this to a 
 trap or catch basin connecting with a 
 cistern. 
 
 THE SIDINGS — LIGHT IN A BARN AND 
 TUBERCULOSIS. 
 
 The interior surface of the side walls 
 
 45 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 should be smooth and of a material such as 
 plaster, adaptable to a light color. 
 
 The smoothness is of value, as it offers a 
 difficult lodgment for dust, and a diminu- 
 tion of dust deposit means not only less 
 necessary cleaning, but a reduced chance of 
 infection, inasmuch as dust in the air is the 
 principal conveyor of dried sputum, which 
 may contain the tubercle bacilli. 
 
 The light color is a way of increasing the 
 light in a barn, and the need of light is so 
 great that the owner of dairy cattle cannot 
 afford to neglect any means of supplying it. 
 Its value comes home to him if he remem- 
 bers that there is a definite inverse ratio 
 between the amount of light in the stable 
 and the spread of tuberculosis among the 
 cattle therein, and aside from the fact that 
 the danger of infection by one tuberculous 
 cow of the entire herd is lessened, there is 
 the consideration of the general health of 
 the animals, which is admittedly better 
 maintained in a light stable. 
 
 The principal and often the only source of 
 
 46 
 
The Cow Bam 
 
 light is the windows in the sidings, and it 
 moves the beholder to pity that in so many 
 barns they resemble the loop-holes in a rev- 
 olutionary fortress. No one asks the farmer 
 to build a cow barn of glass, as the gardener 
 builds his hothouse, but he might with 
 profit take a point or two from the methods 
 of the gardener. In his conservatory the 
 gardener tries to reproduce artificially the 
 conditions of nature, and the more closely 
 he attains them the better his plants thrive. 
 The farmer's object is to conserve his cows 
 during the winter months, and the more 
 closely he reproduces natural conditions the 
 greater will be his success. It he puts them 
 in a building deficient in light they are de- 
 prived of one of the essentials of health, and 
 thereby rendered more liable to be attacked 
 by disease. A sick cow milks her owner's 
 pocketbook; yet farmers have been known to 
 maintain a tuberculous herd for years, while 
 they would not keep a consumptive farm- 
 hand for a week. If they were unaware of 
 the presence of the disease they paid a stag- 
 
 47 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 gering price for their ignorance. With the 
 present diffusion of scientific knowledge 
 there is small excuse for a dairy farmer to 
 be ignorant of the prevalence of tuberculosis 
 in dairy cattle, and if, when the most prac- 
 tical precautions against it are pointed out, 
 he fails to do his share in combating the dis- 
 ease, he must be left to his own devices until 
 such time as the State, in the interests of 
 the community in general and the dairy in- 
 dustry in particular, shall compel him to 
 maintain his establishment in a sanitary 
 condition and conduct his business with 
 ordinary hygienic safeguards. 
 
 Tuberculosis as a subject is to the farmer 
 worse than the proverbial red rag to a bull, 
 but his wrath is of small consequence when 
 the problem is so grave. It is the mountain 
 to which farmer Mahomet must some day 
 come, and no one realizes this better than 
 the officials, agricultural and scientific, who 
 are charged with safeguarding the farmer's 
 interests. The subject cannot be discussed 
 adequately in a work of this character; all 
 
 48 
 
 A & M. COLLEGE LIBRARY 
 
The "Cow Barn 
 
 that can be done is to remind the farmer of 
 the extreme danger and suggest to him that 
 if not because of the possible danger of com- 
 municating tuberculosis to the persons who 
 drink his milk, then because of the welfare 
 of his cows, he adopt the simple measures of 
 prevention. Foremost among these is light, 
 and one would like to see cow barns with a 
 continuous row of windows in the side walls. 
 Some men offer as a compromise a window 
 to each cow, which is a vast improvement 
 over ordinary conditions. The Monitor sky- 
 light advocated for a barn gives much light, 
 and in some barns glass trapdoors have 
 been laid in the slope of the roof. 
 
 VENTILATION. 
 
 After light, the next question concerning 
 a barn is the air, which is furnished by Na- 
 ture without stint and of unquestioned 
 purity when the cows are in the fields. 
 When the farmer takes his cows indoors he 
 cannot ignore, unless to their detriment and 
 the depletion of his income, the quality and 
 
 49 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 the quantity of the air he gives them to 
 breathe. 
 
 A supply of good air is usually assured if 
 there is an outlet overhead, because dead 
 air and the exhalation of the cattle, being 
 warmer than the fresh uninhaled air, will 
 rise and pass out, provided there is an outlet. 
 
 The admission of fresh air is usually 
 accomplished by the doors, the windows, and 
 the loose construction of a barn, but when 
 this fails, as it so often does in the tenement 
 house style of barn, with its loft on loft, the 
 owner is in the hands of his architect and 
 must look to him for a system of ventilation. 
 
 Good ventilation will compensate for 
 small air space, and the cubic dimensions of 
 a building do not of themselves imply good 
 or bad air. A small amount of air constantly 
 renewed is far better than a great quantity 
 of stale air. 
 
 THE STALLS AND THE STANCHION. 
 
 In building the stalls the same ideas apply 
 which governed the interior construction of 
 
 50 
 
The Cow Barn 
 
 the barn, namely, a skeleton framework and 
 the absence of solid board partitions, in 
 order to reduce the dust surface and not to 
 impede the circulation of air and the diffu- 
 sion of light. 
 
 Smoothness and the adaptability to a light 
 color might also be considered. 
 
 Regarding the stanchion framework, 
 which usually consists of two horizontal 
 timbers, into which is set the stanchion, it 
 is recommended that the lower timber be 
 sunk in the floor and leveled over flush with 
 it. This removes the corners, which, besides 
 collecting dust and particles of food, are 
 difficult to clean, and is of further advan- 
 tage in that the cow, as she lunges forward 
 when about to lie down, will not strike her 
 knees against the bar. 
 
 In an effort to provide separate stalls 
 many farmers have built a diagonal parti- 
 tion, extending from the upper timber of the 
 stanchion framework down toward the 
 lower end of the stall floor. Such a separa- 
 tion is to be commended, but instead of the 
 
 51 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 solid partition it is advised that there be 
 substituted a single detachable bar. 
 
 With the introduction of the manure gut 
 ter came the problem of accommodating cow 
 and stall, and the problem is still vexatious. 
 The gutter fixes the length of the stall, and 
 if the cows fit, well and good; if they don't, 
 there is no help for it. In probably 90 per 
 cent, of the cases, and even when the stalls 
 graduate from the size required for a Hol- 
 stein down to the smaller accommodations 
 for a Jersey, the cow and the stall are mis- 
 fits. The manure gutter is then either use- 
 less or becomes a greater cause of defile- 
 ment. When the stall is too long the gutter 
 might better be away, as it then performs 
 no useful purpose, since the droppings fall 
 on the floor of the stall. It would be a great 
 improvement to abolish the manure gutter, 
 and for a device to assist in mechanically 
 keeping cow t s free of manure study the possi- 
 bilities of the stanchion. The tipping stan- 
 chion, used in combination with a floor be- 
 ginning to slope at the rear of the stalls, 
 
 52 
 
The Cow Barn 
 
 is earnestly recommended for the considera- 
 tion of dairy farmers. This stanchion is set 
 at an angle instead of vertically; its lower 
 end is attached, as ordinarily, to the lower 
 timber of the stanchion framework, but the 
 upper end is fastened the necessary dis- 
 tance, say eight inches, back of the place of 
 attachment for the upright stanchion. The 
 result of this is that the cow, when prostrate, 
 is advanced the distance of the tipping away 
 from her droppings. When she stands the 
 stanchion permits forward motion, and as 
 it can be made flexible or revolvable side 
 motion as well, but the backward motion is 
 curtailed and reduced to a minimum, so it 
 is reasonably certain that the animal will 
 not be stepping in manure. Nature con- 
 tributes toward accomplishing this, as the 
 physiological act of defecation is performed 
 in such a manner as to insure the animal's 
 freedom from pollution by her own excre- 
 tion. In general, manure drops outside the 
 area covered by the animal's body when 
 erect, and if when erect she is prevented 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 from stepping back any considerable dis- 
 tance, and, also, when about to lie down 
 caused to prostrate herself some inches for- 
 ward, she will, in all probability, remain 
 practically clean of manure. The accom- 
 plishment of this means a great deal toward 
 keeping manure out of milk, but it also 
 means just as much in the reduction of labor 
 devoted to keeping the herd in a cleanly 
 condition. 
 
 MANGERS AND WATER BUCKETS. 
 
 If the observations of modern dairy estab- 
 lishments can be taken as a basis of judg- 
 ment, feeding from the floor is preferable to 
 the use of mangers. These would better be 
 discarded, on account of the great amount 
 of infectious matter they contain, dirt, dust, 
 and particles of food, in immediate proxim- 
 ity to the mouth and nostrils of the animal. 
 It is practically impossible to clean mangers 
 thoroughly, and, like solid board partitions, 
 they are objectionable on the score of an 
 impediment to the circulation of air and the 
 diffusion of light. 
 
 54 
 
The Cow Barn 
 
 If water buckets are used they can be 
 attached to the stanchion framework, but 
 they require careful and regular cleaning in 
 order to guard against the communication of 
 infectious material. 
 
 EQUIPMENT. 
 
 Artificial light of some kind must be avail- 
 able, as during a great portion of the year 
 the milking is performed in semi-darkness. 
 It goes without saying that if the milker 
 is expected to do his work in a cleanly man- 
 ner he must at least be able to see what he 
 is doing. Electric light is all that could be 
 desired, but even the smallest farmer is able 
 to have necessary light, since if nothing else 
 is possible he can provide each milker with 
 a lantern. 
 
 Water supply in the barn should include 
 taps of hot and cold water, and with them 
 be provided conveniences for cleaning of the 
 hands. 
 
 Clean hands should be an absolute rule of 
 milking, yet small as this important require- 
 
 55 
 
Chan Milk 
 
 raent is it will be neglected unless the oppor- 
 unity of washing is right at hand. 
 
 Washing facilities should be placed in the 
 barn, not only for convenience sake, but also 
 because, as far as possible, all procedures 
 connected with milking should be separated 
 from the household, and, therefore, the milk- 
 ers should not wash in the kitchen. Many 
 barns boast a washing room, but every far- 
 mer can supply a tin basin, soap, and towels, 
 and even when running water is not to be 
 had pails of water can be provided. When 
 washing facilities are thus ready it is very 
 little trouble for the milkers to wash imme- 
 diately before milking, and numerous far- 
 mers, of their own accord, wash the hands 
 thoroughly several times during the milking 
 period, a practise which one old farmer, who 
 cared nothing for the manure thickened on 
 the cows' hides, religiously observed. 
 
 STORAGE. 
 
 Storage in the cow barn is a practise which 
 denotes things out of their proper place, and 
 
 5G 
 
The Coiv Barn 
 
 is also condemned because of the unneces- 
 sary dirt and dust it occasions in the barn. 
 If it be farm utensils they bring a great 
 amount of dirt indoors, which the wind is 
 liable to scatter about on the men and ani- 
 mals, the walls and ceilings, and thereby 
 increase the work of cleaning and also add 
 a chance of defiling the milk. 
 
 Food, in the shape of grain feed piled in 
 a corner, means that dry dust from it will 
 be carried in the air. The odor of silage in 
 the milk is often caused by its presence in 
 the barn rather than by the feeding of it to 
 the cows. This holds equally true of brew- 
 ers' grains. 
 
 Milking utensils, including the forty-quart 
 cans, should not be kept in the barn, which 
 is not an appropriate place for such articles. 
 They belong in the dairy house, the vat 
 room, or the spring house. 
 
 CARE OF THE BARN. 
 
 The barn should be in such condition that 
 cows, when brought clean from the fields or 
 
 57 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 after being groomed and washed, shall not 
 become dirty again through their surround- 
 ings indoors. If it be considered that cows 
 are stabled uninterruptedly for a period of 
 six months, and that the condition of their 
 quarters is a factor in their health, and, fur- 
 thermore, that the milking is done in the 
 barn, the cleanliness of the place will be 
 admitted to be of prime importance. Keep- 
 ing a barn in a sanitary condition is not a 
 great problem, for there is hardly a dairy 
 community which does not boast of a barn, 
 accommodating a herd of from ten to fifty 
 cows, which is clean and free from odors. 
 The means required are very inexpensive, 
 and the methods to be followed simple. 
 
 If a farmer starts with his barn in proper 
 condition he has done much in his campaign 
 against dirt and disease. A thorough over- 
 hauling and cleaning just before the cows 
 are put in the barn for the winter period, and 
 after they are turned out to pasture on the 
 approach of summer, will do much toward 
 preserving the building and reducing the 
 
 58 
 
The Cow Bam 
 
 labor of maintaining it throughout the year. 
 In this semi-annual cleaning every part of 
 the barn should receive attention, and con- 
 sidering that dust is the great enemy, every 
 possible lurking place or lodgment for it 
 should be removed or reduced as much as 
 possible. A diminution of dust in the barn 
 decreases the danger of rapid infection of a 
 herd from a tuberculous cow, and this is best 
 accomplished by reducing the footholds for 
 dust, such as cracks, corners, rough surfaces, 
 etc., and also by removing the dust by con- 
 stant and thorough cleanings. 
 
 Whitewashing also should be a regular 
 part of these general cleanings, and the en- 
 tire interior receive a liberal coat. Besides 
 the two general cleanings some whitewash- 
 ing should be done all through the year. If 
 a pail and brush are kept handy it can be 
 done at odd hours and on rainy days. The 
 advantages of whitewashing are such as 
 recommend it to every farmer. It is an effec- 
 tive disinfectant, because of the lime con- 
 tained in it; it absorbs odors, and unques- 
 
 59 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 tionably makes the interior lighter. As has 
 previously been pointed out, light in a barn 
 is so important that any means of increasing 
 it should not be neglected. 
 
 As part of the daily cleaning the entire 
 floor should be flushed and washed down 
 with a hose, or, where this is not possible, 
 then thoroughly swept, but the sweeping 
 should be over at least one hour before milk- 
 ing, in order to allow time for the dust to 
 settle. It is sometimes expedient to sprinkle 
 the floor with a hose or sprinkling can. In 
 this daily cleaning it is important that the 
 alleys, the mangers, the feed troughs, and 
 water buckets receive special attention, in 
 order that remnants of food shall not be 
 overlooked. Food particles not only produce 
 an odor, but also provide a medium for bac- 
 terial growth. A part of the daily cleaning 
 not to be neglected is a thorough airing and 
 sunning of the barn. 
 
 The sidings and the windows should be 
 cleaned at least once a month, and dust not 
 permitted to collect in corners and cracks 
 
 60 
 
The Cow Barn 
 
 in the woodwork. Cobwebs especially 
 gather dust, and these should be removed 
 quite frequently, as it requires only a few 
 minutes' work with a broom to brush them 
 away. 
 
 The stalls and stanchion framework need 
 frequent cleaning, and good farmers clean 
 them once a week. 
 
 The manure gutter, where there is one, 
 needs above all things the greatest atten- 
 tion, and the necessity for the proper clean- 
 ing of it cannot be emphasized strongly 
 enough. Manure is the principle cause of 
 the contamination of milk; it defiles the ani- 
 mals, the buildings, and the workers, and by 
 excluding it from the milk, a great step in 
 the production of clean milk has been taken. 
 As has been shown, manure gutters should 
 not be allowed, but a well-constructed gut- 
 ter can be kept in a sanitary condition. It 
 must be thoroughly cleaned out at least once 
 a day and land plaster and lime strewn in 
 it. These are both absorbents and disinfec 
 tants. A point should be made of this daily 
 
 61 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 cleaning, and the practise of waiting until 
 the gutter is full or overflowing condemned. 
 The soiled bedding may be drawn into the 
 gutter and used as an absorbent for the 
 urine. Many farmers are accustomed to put 
 the horse manure and refuse from the horse 
 stable into the gutter, but this practise is 
 not advisable. Where a grating is placed 
 over the gutter care should be taken that it 
 is kept clean. This grating, as a rule, is bet- 
 ter dispensed with, because it is difficult to 
 keep clean, and only the rich man can afford 
 the extra labor necessary for complicated 
 devices. In carrying away manure from the 
 barn it may be suggested that this be done 
 with care, in order not to contaminate the 
 barn and the cow yard. Frequently the 
 ground around farm buildings will be 
 seriously polluted from careless handling of 
 the manure. A metal wheelbarrow or the 
 watertight cart in use by street cleaners is 
 suggested as well suited for this purpose. 
 
 BEDDING. 
 
 Bedding or no bedding is a question with 
 
 62 
 
The Cow Barn 
 
 farmers. Many, even with a cement floor to 
 the stalls, believe it to be unnecessary. 
 
 When the stalls have a wooden floor, or 
 a wooden platform is placed npon a cement 
 floor, less bedding is required, and this is an 
 advantage, for bedding means dust in close 
 proximity to the udder and teats and conse- 
 quently greater exposure for the milk. 
 
 The farmer should see that not too much 
 bedding is laid, and that it is clean and free 
 as possible from dust. Bedding a cow up to 
 the belly is an unwise practise, for it 
 increases the difficulty of producing pure 
 milk. 
 
 The best bedding is planed shavings, and 
 the worst is hay. Hay not only carries much 
 dust, but is also the source of special spore- 
 bearing organisms whose presence in milk 
 are to be guarded against. Other material 
 may be used, such as sawdust, dried leaves, 
 and straw, which are good absorbents and 
 reasonably free from dust. When straw is 
 used it must be cut up small, so that it will 
 not reach up to the body of the cow. 
 
 63 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 All bedding should be removed daily, to 
 permit cleaning of the entire floor of the 
 barn, but if this is not done at least the 
 soiled bedding should be drawn into the 
 manure gutter and some fresh bedding 
 added. The removal of bedding should be 
 part of the morning chores, and the placing 
 of fresh bedding is best done after the even- 
 ing milking. This practise not only leaves 
 more room for the milker and his utensils, 
 but the resulting dust is raised at a time 
 when the milk will not be exposed to it. 
 
 FEEDING. 
 
 It is better that no rations be given just 
 preceding or during the milking, because of 
 the dust which will be raised, but if a farmer 
 insists on feeding at this time the least harm 
 is done by giving a scant ration of moist 
 grain. 
 
 After the milking is over any food may be 
 given. In general all foods likely to produce 
 a foreign odor and taste in the milk should 
 be fed some hours before milking. It is much 
 
 64 
 
The Cow Bam 
 
 wiser to feed silage or any strong smelling 
 or fermentable food immediately after the 
 morning milking, because the daily cleaning 
 and airing taking place then, fragments of 
 these foods are removed and there is time for 
 the odor to pass off before the next milking. 
 
 In order to abbreviate the evening chores 
 many farmers have the practise of pulling 
 down hay before milking. This is to be con- 
 demned, because it fills the air with dust. 
 
 The practise of bringing silage in trucks 
 and cars to stand for hours in the barn is 
 equally bad, because it means the presence 
 of an odor in the barn likely to be absorbed 
 by the warm milk. 
 
ISOLATION QUARTERS 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE question of caring for a sick cow 
 brings out, perhaps more decisively 
 than in any other way, how insepar- 
 ably united are sentiment and profit in 
 dairying. That a tender, sensitive animal 
 burdened with her unborn offspring should 
 be gently handled and protected from hard- 
 ship and abuse, receives the assent of every 
 humane person; but when this animal is, at 
 the same time, daily producing an article 
 convertible into dollars and cents, and the 
 amount of this money-making article is in- 
 creased by kindness and diminished by 
 brutality, it is then that sentiment is rein- 
 forced by profit and the two unite and say 
 " Be kind to the cow." 
 
 Assuming that farmers realize the rela- 
 tion between the health of the animal and 
 her profit to him, it seems reasonable to 
 assert that no dairy establishment is com- 
 plete without some provision for isolating a 
 cow. 
 
 66 
 
Isolation Quarters 
 
 Once she shows any disorder or comes 
 under suspicion in any way, it is necessary 
 that she be separated from the herd. No 
 farmer is justified, nor can he afford to be 
 responsible for a sick animal, not only on ac- 
 count of the particular animal, but because 
 of the danger to his entire herd and to the 
 milk as well. A veterinarian, as a qualified 
 person on whose judgment and decision the 
 farmer can rely, should be summoned, and 
 in the meantime, no risk incurred but the 
 animal in question promptly isolated. Some 
 place apart from the cow barn should be 
 provided, where the animal can be watched, 
 and receive the necessary treatment and at- 
 tention. The isolation quarters should in- 
 sure to a sick animal an abundant supply 
 of light and air, ease and comfort, and a 
 freedom from noise and disturbance. The 
 quarters also should be capable of thorough 
 disinfection after use. 
 
 The isolation quarters could also be of 
 great service in the treatment of tubercu- 
 losis. An animal could be quarantined there, 
 
 67 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 until the diagnosis be made. If it be con- 
 clusive that the animal has tuberculosis and 
 is valuable enough to be worth the trouble, 
 she could receive attention and treatment 
 which might result in curing her. 
 
IMPROVEMENT OF A DAIRY 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE statement is made advisedly that 
 there is hardly a dairy in the land 
 whose efficiency in producing clean 
 milk cannot be raised to a standard as high 
 as any which, with reasonableness, is applied 
 to the production of any other commercial 
 product. Some places are beyond redemp- 
 tion short of a new establishment, but in the 
 main dairy farms, whether those of the home 
 farmer class, with a herd of a dozen or a 
 score of cows, or those of an aggregation of 
 farms under one manager, boasting of a 
 thousand cattle, are capable of great im- 
 provement, and this improvement with sim- 
 ple and rather inexpensive means. A typical 
 case of what has been accomplished is here 
 set forth. The dairy, consisting of twenty 
 cows, was owned by the farmer, and all the 
 work done by himself and his wife. It was a 
 very small establishment, but it represented 
 a type of dairy that is probably more numer- 
 ous than any other, is too frequently and 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 mistakenly classed as hopeless, and for these 
 reasons it seemed desirable to devote efforts 
 toward its improvement and demonstrate 
 what could be done under unfavorable 
 conditions. 
 
 The bacteriologist made a visit and found 
 conditions that represented millions of bac- 
 teria to a cubic centimetre of milk. The 
 barn floor was in bad condition and the gut- 
 ter contained much manure; overhead was a 
 ceiling of poles with the hay in wisps and 
 bunches sticking down. The place looked as 
 if it had not been cleaned for years, the sid- 
 ings were thickly bespattered with urine and 
 manure spots, cobwebs spanned every corner 
 and angle, dust lay piled in the crevices and 
 crannies, and there did not seem to be a 
 square inch of clean wood in the whole inte- 
 rior. Dirty clothing hung on hooks, plows 
 and other farm machinery were scattered 
 about, and in a corner was stored a pile of 
 feed. Though it was summer, even the cows 
 were not clean, many of them having manure 
 on the flanks. When the herd was brought 
 
 70 
 
Improvement of a Dairy 
 
 indoors for milking they stood restlessly in 
 their stalls, stamping and swishing their 
 tails. It was a hot, sultry day in August, 
 but indoors was more uncomfortable than in 
 the open air. The sun streamed through the 
 western windows, the strong odor in the 
 place attracted great numbers of flies, and 
 the stuffy, heated atmosphere was trying to 
 both cows and humans. The straining of 
 the milk was done in the barn; the strainer 
 had partly rusted, while the cheesecloth 
 used, being loosely fastened, would slip into 
 the strainer and be lifted out by the fingers 
 of the milker. 
 
 To remedy such conditions required co- 
 operation, but the farmer had a willing spirit 
 and was convinced of the advantages to be 
 derived from the knowledge and scientific 
 training of the visitor. In company with the 
 bacteriologist the farmer went through his 
 establishment and its defects were pointed 
 out to him, the loss they caused him, and the 
 injury resulting to his milk. The weak 
 points in his system of operations were 
 
 71 
 
(Iran Milk 
 
 explained to him, the necessary changes indi- 
 cated, and where asked the ways and means 
 to improvement suggested. 
 
 On a return visit the place was found 
 transformed. The barn interior was cool, 
 light, and presented an orderly appearance. 
 The use of whitewash had done wonders in 
 brightening the barn. Sheathing paper had 
 been tacked upon the poles, and it made a 
 tight ceiling. Green window shades on the 
 western windows tempered the afternoon 
 sun, and the barn was cooler. The odor was 
 greatly diminished, and fewer flies were 
 about, and, though it was just as hot as on 
 the previous visit, the cows were standing 
 quietly and at ease. Adjoining the barn the 
 farmer had built a plain board lean-to just 
 the size of a vat room, and here the milk was 
 carried in covered pails and strained through 
 a metal wire mesh strainer without any 
 cloth. A wash-boiler had been called into 
 use, and the milking pail and the strainer 
 boiled daily. Under the new conditions the 
 farmer's milk registered a count of less than 
 
 72 
 
Improvement of a Dairy 
 
 30,000 bacteria per c.c, and aside from the 
 satisfaction he felt in such a good record, 
 the farmer was free to admit that under his 
 new system the milking went more expe- 
 ditiously. 
 
 It is to be noted in connection with the 
 improvement of this dairy that the changes 
 required a very small expenditure, and these 
 changes once made would be effective for a 
 long period of time. The whitewash, sheath- 
 ing paper for the ceiling, the green shades, 
 the new utensils, and the building of a milk 
 room did not cost much for the material, 
 while the work was done by the farmer him- 
 self. In return for it the farmer had trans- 
 formed his dairy so that it became a show 
 place in the community, he had improved 
 the stabling accommodations for the herd, 
 he had a new system of operations which 
 was more convenient and more rapid than 
 his former one, and he had equipped himself 
 to produce a superior grade of milk. 
 
 73 
 
THE COWS 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE owner of or the person responsible 
 for dairy cattle has laid upon himself 
 certain definite responsibilities and 
 duties from the mere fact of taking charge 
 of living animals of that character. One of 
 these, and not the least important, is their 
 maintenance in a state of health. He owes 
 it to himself, to the animals, and to his fel- 
 low men in the community that neither the 
 animals nor their product shall be obnox- 
 ious. Some of the things calculated to 
 accomplish this much desired result have 
 been set forth in the recommendation for a 
 clean, light, and airy barn, and also the iso- 
 lation quarters. What is here offered for 
 the consideration of dairy farmers is the im- 
 portant matter of the external cleanliness of 
 the cows. 
 
 Whether a cow's hide be clean, as in Na- 
 ture, or plastered with manure accumula- 
 tions, as in the dairy state, is no small mat- 
 ter. Not only has it a bearing on the welfare 
 
 74 
 
The Cows 
 
 of the animal, but it affects in all too great 
 a degree the quality of her product. 
 
 It is generally accepted that if the cow be 
 dirty it is her keeper, not the animal, who is 
 to blame. In summer, when she is pastured 
 and at liberty to follow her own devices, she 
 can select her own bed, and it is a clean one; 
 she uses the comb, brush, and water pro- 
 vided by Nature, and, aided by a long handle, 
 her very supple neck, she washes and grooms 
 her own body. She asks and needs no atten- 
 tion from the keeper, and in winter it would 
 be the same if she were given half a chance 
 to keep clean. In place of the open field, 
 with pure air unstinted, she may be boxed 
 beneath a two-foot ceiling, which showers 
 down hay, dust, cobwebs, and the settling 
 refuse of a three-story building, her head is 
 pilloried between slats, she must lie in a bed 
 made for her of her own filth, and her ac- 
 quaintance with outdoors amounts to tram- 
 pling a narrow, dirty yard. It can be laid 
 down as a safe guide that when the cow 
 requires cleaning there is something funda- 
 
 75 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 mentally wrong in the method of keeping 
 her. When she is bound hard and fast by 
 the neck the person doing this must make 
 up for the cow's inability to groom herself; 
 when she is compelled to lie down in a bed 
 of manure the farmer cannot shirk his duty, 
 and that is, clean the cow of manure. 
 
 The sight of a cow with manure flanks is 
 so common that it has come to be accepted 
 as the distinctive badge of a dairy animal. 
 It denotes wanton neglect and shameful 
 laziness on the part of the animal's keeper, 
 and the man who stands by and calmly 
 watches the noxious stuff thicken and 
 thicken day by day is unfit to associate with 
 a dairy cow. If his own sense of decency is 
 stopped up like his nose, and the public sen- 
 timent of his home community does not prod 
 him, he will revel in his filth until the State, 
 under a license system, quarantines the milk 
 produced by such filthy dairies. 
 
 If the prevention of this blot on the dairy 
 industry called for a considerable expendi- 
 ture of money and labor the farmer might 
 
 76 
 
The Cows 
 
 have some excuse. In the case of the poor 
 man who can afford only a primitive arrange- 
 ment for a stanchion and stall, and in the 
 case of him who can afford but will not pay 
 for adequate stabling accommodation, there 
 can be used an old broom, which with a few 
 minutes' work each day will brush off the 
 greatest part of the manure and keep the 
 cow's hide decently clean. If the cow re- 
 ceives no other cleaning, at least the brush- 
 ing of the flanks with the broom can be done 
 each day, and the cheapness and efficiency 
 of this simple act puts it beyond the power 
 of even the poorest dairy farmer in the land 
 to offer a good excuse for his cows carrying 
 a load of manure. 
 
 For the dairy farmer with a pride in his 
 dairy, who wishes to produce an especially 
 clean milk and a milk that is a luxury indeed, 
 there is a special cleaning which supple- 
 ments the daily grooming. The currycomb- 
 ing and brushing is an ordinary daily atten- 
 tion which the cow, as a valuable animal and 
 a profitable member of the establishment, is 
 
 77 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 as much entitled to as she is to her daily 
 ration. An extra cleaning with a view to 
 making absolutely clean milk should include 
 the use of soap and water. 
 
 Thirty minutes before each milking the 
 flanks should be scrubbed, the tail from the 
 base to end, the udder and the folds between 
 the udder and flanks thoroughly washed, and 
 then the tail combed out. This washing im- 
 mediately before milking leaves a damp sur- 
 face from which dust will not fly. 
 
 The washing may at first affect the flow of 
 milk, but this is only temporary and ceases 
 once the cow becomes accustomed to it. 
 
 Once the cows are cleaned in preparation 
 for the milking they should be kept standing 
 until the milking is completed. This action 
 not only assists in reducing the chances of 
 dirt getting into the milk but is of great 
 value in saving time, in some dairies as much 
 as thirty minutes being gained on the time 
 required for milking. It can be accomplished 
 in various ways, but one of the most simple 
 and effective is the use of a throat latch. 
 
 78 
 
The Coivs 
 
 This is simply a long rope or chain drawn 
 under the necks of a line of cows and at- 
 tached to the stanchion framework; it can as 
 well be a short chain fastened to one bar of 
 a stanchion and hooking, under the neck of 
 the cow, to the other bar. It is also feasible 
 where the cow has a collar, to hook this to 
 the stanchion. Many stanchions can also be 
 made to keep the cows upright for the short 
 time required for milking. 
 
 It may seem superfluous, but experience 
 justifies the remark that this compulsory 
 standing of the animal is intended to last 
 only during the milking period, and once the 
 milking is over the throat latch or stanchion 
 should be cast loose. 
 
 What to do with a cow's tail during milk- 
 ing has given many a farmer considerable 
 concern. In order to prevent it being whisked 
 about, and depositing dirt in the milk, it has 
 been bandaged and attached by a loop to the 
 ceiling, but the simple and adequate method 
 of making it harmless by clipping and wash- 
 ing is rarely practised by the farmer. 
 
 79 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 Clipping long hairs is also advisable. This 
 clipping should proceed from the flanks 
 backward, include the base and length of 
 the tail, down the legs, and around the abdo- 
 men and udder. Long hair or clumps of 
 hair in the region of the udder especially 
 should be removed. The tail, or at least 
 the long straggling hairs, should be trimmed 
 to within five inches of the ground. 
 
THE MILKER 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE fact that milk is a food will sug- 
 gest to every person that the rules of 
 cleanliness observed in the kitchen 
 and dining room may be well applied to its 
 production. It is not too much to say that 
 the milker should make a toilet for the dairy 
 as punctilious as that of the maid who waits 
 on the table. 
 
 The need of cleanly precautions is in- 
 creased because milk has a peculiarly active 
 capacity for absorbing all manner of odors, 
 it is a favorable medium for the propagation 
 of disease bacteria, and its color and taste 
 are no indications of its power for good or 
 evil. It is especially dangerous, since unlike 
 many foods it does not, in a majority of the 
 uses it is put to, undergo the sterilization 
 produced by cooking. In view of this, it is 
 not unreasonable to demand that the per- 
 sons handling milk, while it is exposed, be 
 free from disease, and be clean in person and 
 clothing. 
 
 81 
 
Chan Milk 
 
 The milker should be selected with great 
 care, as the task is one requiring an under- 
 standing of cows and a sympathy with them, 
 a skill in working quickly and neatly, and a 
 willingness to take pains in protecting milk 
 against pollution. 
 
 As scrupulous cleanliness is required of 
 the milker, bathing facilities should be con- 
 venient and laundry service be free and un- 
 stinted, that the milking suit and other 
 clothing be frequently changed. 
 
 The simplest health precaution would bar 
 out a milker who has or is convalescing from 
 an infectious or contagious disease, or who 
 is nursing a patient with a communicable 
 malady. Similarly, if a milker has con- 
 tracted influenza or any inflammation caus- 
 ing pus discharges, he should be relieved 
 from milking duty. 
 
 Odors are absorbed so readily and re- 
 tained for so long a time by milk that estab- 
 lishments producing a superior article 
 should not neglect this matter. For this 
 reason, it would be preferable to employ 
 
 82 
 
The Milker 
 
 milkers who did not use tobacco in any form, 
 while it should be superfluous to forbid the 
 use of intoxicating liquors. The odors com- 
 municated to milk from the hands of milkers 
 are too numerous to be cited, and the em- 
 ployees of milk companies charged with test- 
 ing milk for odor can recite numerous in- 
 stances of obnoxious odors introduced by de- 
 filement of the hands of milkers. There is 
 also the ever-present danger of typhoid 
 germs being communicated to milk from 
 milkers' fingers, which have been contam- 
 inated by infected feces. 
 
 The preparation for milking should con- 
 sist of washing the hands and arms as far as 
 the elbows with warm water and soap, and 
 the use of a finger brush and nail file. After 
 this washing the milker should not touch the 
 beard, face, ears, eyes, the handkerchief, or 
 brush the cow's hide with the naked hand. 
 
 The milking clothes, usually consisting of 
 cap, jacket, and trousers, should be reserved 
 for this purpose, and might with advantage 
 be sterilized daily. 
 
 83 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 All milking should be done with dry 
 hands, and the fore-milk never used to mois- 
 ten the fingers. If the fingers are hard or 
 chapped or dandruff is on the cow's teats a 
 little vaseline should be applied. In case of 
 coughing, milkers should be careful to avert 
 the head from the milking pail, a precaution 
 also to be observed in case of sneezing. 
 
 The dairy farmer who does not receive a 
 premium for cleanliness is hardly expected 
 to adopt the foregoing requirements, but so 
 long as he offers for public sale and con- 
 sumption a food article like milk, with its 
 possibilities of disease conveying and its ten- 
 dencies to deterioration and absolute loss, 
 he may be expected, out of deference to the 
 public, to do something. 
 
 A minimum requirement, such as a State 
 license system should enact, is the washing 
 of hands and the wearing of a garment to 
 protect the milk from defilement by the or- 
 dinary working clothes. Some farmers have 
 no idea that washing the hands is a neces- 
 sary preparation for milking. They will 
 
 84 
 
The Milker 
 
 milk with visible dirt upon the hands, which, 
 becoming mingled with milk, trickles down 
 between the fingers into the milk pail, while 
 others will milk even with open sores upon 
 the hands. In contrast to such men many 
 farmers not only wash the hands just before 
 taking the milking pail, but also wash after 
 milking every four or five cows. 
 
 The wearing of dirty working clothes 
 while milking is inexcusable. If they cannot 
 be discarded, at least, some garment such 
 as a jacket, overalls, or apron should be 
 worn over them. The heavy cap or broad 
 brimmed hat, especially, should be put off 
 during milking, lest dirt fall from it into the 
 milking pail. 
 
M 
 
 I 
 
 L 
 
 K 
 
 A 
 
 N 
 
 D 
 
 I 
 
 T 
 
 S 
 
 P 
 
 R 
 
 E 
 
 S E 
 
 R 
 
 V 
 
 A T 
 
 I 
 
 O 
 
 N 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 WHEN Nature instituted milk as a 
 food she also provided the manner 
 of supplying it in such a way that 
 it should not be exposed; the teat of the 
 mother entered the mouth of the offspring 
 and the food passed from one to the other 
 without suffering external contamination, 
 except what might be caused by extraneous 
 matter attached to the outside of the teat. 
 Human ingenuity has imitated the method, 
 and when the scientist wants to secure milk 
 in its natural state he inserts a sterilized 
 glass tube into the teat and draws milk into 
 a sterilized bottle. The point of interest to 
 the dairy farmer is this: Milk taken from 
 a cow by the scientist in this manner will 
 usually keep fresh and sweet at room tem- 
 perature for years when protected from 
 later contamination. From this fact the 
 farmer can lay down all the necessary rules 
 for the handling of his product, and all these 
 
 80 
 
BOTTLING AT A HOME DAIRY 
 
Milk and Its Preservation 
 
 rules can be summed up in one: Do not 
 expose milk more than is absolutely neces- 
 sary. Manifestly some exposure will take 
 place; the farmer not only cannot do as the 
 scientist does, but his object is not to pro- 
 duce sterile milk, but a marketable article 
 that will retain its original properties for a 
 limited period of time. In order to do this 
 let him imitate so far as he can the method 
 of the scientist, and the closer he attains 
 this the better will be his product. But even 
 when the milk has been exposed there re- 
 mains a simple and powerful corrective. 
 Keep milk at a low temperature. The secret 
 of milk preservation lies in these two rules: 
 First, expose milk as little as possible; sec- 
 ond, keep milk at a low temperature; and it 
 must be classed as a piece of good fortune 
 that a food product of such value and wide- 
 spread use can be maintained by the obser- 
 vance of so few and so simple precautions. 
 If the producer of milk will conduct his busi- 
 ness with the knowledge and understanding 
 that the cause of the physical and chemical 
 
 87 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 change in milk, and consequently a deprecia- 
 tion of its value, is the result of exposure to 
 bacterial dirt, he will be forewarned and 
 forearmed and much better qualified to 
 work intelligently. 
 
 Exposure to bacterial dirt is occasioned 
 by putting milk into unclean vessels, by 
 keeping it uncovered near unclean persons 
 and animals, and leaving it uncovered in un- 
 clean places. Some exposure must occur in 
 the ordinary routine. So much is granted. 
 But this exposure can be made as slight and 
 as harmless and as short as possible. That 
 is, milk in its passage from cow to consumer 
 should enter a small number of vessels, the 
 fewer the better; the surface it touches in 
 these vessels should be reduced as much as 
 can be, and the openings in these vessels 
 should be as small as the purpose allows, 
 and provided with covers. Necessary expo- 
 sure is limited to drawing milk from a clean 
 cow with clean fingers into a clean pail in 
 a clean barn; it means straining in a clean 
 room through a clean strainer into a clean 
 
Milk and Its Preservation 
 
 receiving can. Short exposure means milk- 
 ing quickly, straining quickly, filling vessels 
 quickly, and covering them immediately. 
 
 The exposure which has resulted can be 
 offset by cooling the milk and maintaining 
 it at a low temperature. A better method 
 than the use of ice for preserving milk has 
 not been devised; it is the natural one to 
 be employed in connection with a food 
 product like milk threatened with bacterial 
 operations; its efficiency is beyond question, 
 and its cheapness seems like a provision of 
 Nature to aid mankind in its food supply. 
 What icing milk accomplishes is the delay- 
 ing of those changes in the milk which would 
 otherwise take place rapidly. When milk is 
 maintained at a temperature of 40° Fah. the 
 bacteria in it do not increase rapidly in num- 
 bers, and are not active in performing those 
 functions which result in changes in milk, 
 such as souring, and in the formation of 
 deleterious products, which are responsible 
 for the so-called milk and ice-cream 
 poisoning. 
 
 89 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 The cooling of milk should be done within 
 one hour, and, if possible, immediately after 
 milking. Making all due allowance for the 
 action of the bacterial substance in milk, 
 this is the safest procedure. If the farmer 
 does not provide for the cooling it may not 
 be done when it is imperatively needed, and 
 even when milk is delivered to the consumer 
 within a short time it may still be kept for as 
 long as a day before being consumed. This 
 quick and continued cooling is absolutely 
 essential for milk destined for the cities, 
 which will be twenty-four and forty-eight 
 hours old when delivered. 
 
MILKING 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 AS a preparation for milking the barn 
 has been cleaned of manure, land 
 plaster or lime laid, the cows have 
 been groomed, and the udder, the folds near 
 it, and the tail washed, and the throat latch 
 or stanchion fastened to keep the animals 
 standing. 
 
 The person about to milk has washed his 
 hands and put on milking clothes and taken 
 the milking pail, which has a small opening 
 and is provided with a cover. 
 
 Before beginning to milk the milker 
 should wipe off the teats with a towel, which 
 should be kept in the pocket of the jacket of 
 the milking suit. The milker should be care- 
 ful not to handle a dirty milking stool, wipe 
 the udder or teats, or brush the side of the 
 cow with the naked hand. At the best dairy 
 farms the foremilk is discarded. 
 
 The practise of leaning the head against 
 the cow's body should be abandoned. While 
 milking, the pail should be held at an angle 
 
 91 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 of 45 degrees, that the surface of milk pre- 
 sented to falling dirt may be reduced. 
 
 In case of any pollution by the cow during 
 milking the milker should be careful that 
 no drops of urine, bits of feces, or dust raised 
 by the droppings get into the milk, and if a 
 pail of milk is contaminated in this way, or 
 by another accident, such as a cow putting 
 a hoof into the pail, the milk should be kept 
 from the general supply. 
 
 As the milking must be done expeditiously 
 it is necessary and also a wise provision that 
 all unnecessary persons be excluded from 
 the cow barn. They not only disturb the 
 herd, and, therefore, affect the flow of milk, 
 but they also represent an unknown danger 
 of infection. 
 
 Children under fourteen years of age 
 especially should be excluded, as they may 
 be carriers of diphtheria or scarlet fever, to 
 which they are more susceptible than adults. 
 
 Small animals, such as dogs and cats, 
 should not be permitted in barns and dairy 
 rooms. 
 
 92 
 
Milking 
 
 As soon as a cow has been milked the milk- 
 ing pail must be covered and so carried to 
 the place where the straining is to be done. 
 
 The straining should not be done in the 
 barn, the barn yard, or any place in prox- 
 imity to dirt, or where flies will gather; a 
 proper place is the dairy room, the spring 
 house, or vat room, where milk can be pro- 
 tected against extreme contamination. 
 
 When the milk has been poured from the 
 milking pail the latter should immediately 
 be re-covered and kept so until the milker 
 begins to milk another cow. 
 
 As soon as a forty-quart can is filled it 
 should be placed in a cooling vat whose tem- 
 perature is less than 45°. So few springs 
 have so low a temperature that the addition 
 of ice is usually necessary. The covers 
 should be tightly fastened on the cans, to 
 keep out dust, frogs, and mice. 
 
 If the farmer persists in tipping the covers 
 he should protect the can with a wire or 
 cloth covering. 
 
 The cans of milk when in transit to the 
 
 93 
 
Glean Milk 
 
 country receiving station should have 
 wrapped about them a wet blanket, upon 
 which has been placed another dry one. 
 Jackets for the cans, of course, are better, 
 since they are more effective in preventing 
 the rise of temperature. 
 
 Every farmer should use a dairy thermo- 
 meter, that he may definitely know at what 
 temperature the milk leaves his place, the 
 temperature of the spring, and the cooling 
 vat. 
 
THE DAIRY ROOM AND 
 THE ICE HOUSE 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE dairy room should be reserved for 
 its set purpose because of the neces- 
 sity of its being always kept scrupu- 
 lously clean. 
 
 No storage should be permitted, such as 
 apples, vegetables, and other products. 
 
 Small animals should be excluded. 
 
 It should be built like a good barn with 
 smooth walls and ceilings and a cement 
 floor. Whitewash should be applied on the 
 side walls and ceiling. The daily cleaning 
 should be a thorough one, special attention 
 being given to removing coagulated milk 
 from the floor, which if left will draw flies 
 and collect dirt. The windows should be 
 screened, and precaution taken against a 
 draft of wind laden with dust. A direct en- 
 trance from the barn should be avoided, or 
 at least an alley or ante room constructed. 
 
 ICE HOUSE. 
 
 A supply of ice is scarcely to be dispensed 
 
 95 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 with, if pure milk is to receive proper care. 
 A good spring should be considered an 
 auxiliary in cooling rather than a main re- 
 liance, for seldom is spring water, without 
 the addition of some ice, cold enough to re- 
 duce the temperature sufficiently. 
 
 One ton and one half for each cow is a 
 good average amount for a year, and this can 
 generally be procured in the country at a 
 moderate cost of labor and money. If a 
 small pond is not already available, it is easy 
 to flood a meadow or dam a brook in winter 
 time and cut the quantity of ice needed. 
 
 Building the ice house may form the prin- 
 cipal expense, but this expense is incurred 
 but once in many years and is justified by the 
 improved quality of the milk. The ice house 
 need not be a fine structure of double walls 
 filled with sawdust, for almost any kind of 
 building can be made to serve the purpose. 
 
U T E IS S I L S 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE utensils present an important 
 consideration in the production of 
 clean milk. They will frequently be 
 the one defect in a good dairy and in many 
 cases are responsible, more than any other 
 one thing, for an increased bacterial count. 
 
 In their manufacture, cleaning, and stor- 
 age, the dairyman can accomplish much in 
 the way of improving his product. 
 
 In general, few articles should be used in 
 the ordinary dairy routine, and these of sim- 
 ple construction. Every surface which milk 
 touches is an additional chance for contam- 
 ination, so in the passage from the cow to 
 the consumer the fewer the vessels it enters 
 the better. 
 
 Utensils should be constructed with the 
 view of accomplishing three things: A re- 
 duction of the exposure of the milk con- 
 tained in them, a reduction of the surface it 
 is to come in contact with, and a facilitation 
 of their proper cleaning. 
 
 97 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 In the case of utensils made of metal, such 
 as milking pails, strainers, and cans, close 
 scrutiny of the seams and joints is neces- 
 sary to insure that they are well soldered 
 and closed. Open joints or cracks in the 
 seams offer a hold for coagulated milk, 
 which is a medium for bacterial growth and 
 is responsible for the odor in cans and has a 
 share in causing milk to sour. Tubs and 
 vats made of slate or metal are preferable 
 to wood because they are more easily kept 
 in a sanitary condition. 
 
 The cleaning of milk utensils should be 
 done with much care, and a point made of 
 washing them immediately after use. This 
 prompt washing is very important and the 
 practise of delaying it for several hours must 
 be severely condemned. The milk thickens 
 on the sides and bottom of the vessel, while 
 the bacteria are increasing at a tremendous 
 rate, and when the cleaning is performed it 
 is extra difficult and rarely accomplished 
 thoroughly. 
 
 The odor of milk vessels is due to careless 
 
 98 
 
Utensils 
 
 and improper methods of cleaning. Uten- 
 sils after use should be immediately rinsed 
 in cold water, in order to prevent coagula- 
 tion of the milk still in the vessel and also 
 to remove as much of this milk as possible. 
 Then they should be scrubbed with warm 
 water, to which has been added some solvent 
 such as soap or a washing soda, to act upon 
 the fatty substance, and finally rinsed clean. 
 
 The cleaning of milk utensils is not com- 
 plete nor adequate without sterilization. 
 This is accomplished much more easily than 
 farmers imagine, as an ordinary wash boiler 
 can be utilized. These are usually large 
 enough to contain the pails and the strainer 
 at once or in not more than two or three 
 batches. 
 
 Boiling for thirty minutes and drying in 
 the oven or on the stove will generally ac- 
 complish sterilization, and the farmer has 
 the satisfaction of knowing that so far as the 
 cleanliness of his utensils is concerned he is 
 beyond reproach. 
 
 The water used for washing purposes 
 
 99 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 must be uncontaminated, and this precau- 
 tion no dairy farmer can afford to neglect, 
 as the lesson of typhoid epidemics ascribed 
 to milk plainly teaches. In most of the 
 cases the infection was traced back and 
 definitely fixed on the wash water. In the 
 event of typhoid in his own household, the 
 farmer should send no milk to market. 
 
 The storage of utensils is very often done 
 haphazardly and without any thought 
 toward keeping them clean. They should 
 not be kept in the barn or cow yard, where 
 dirt is being blown about, and where they 
 are knocked around or offer a chance for 
 small animals to get in. A proper place is 
 the dairy, the spring house, or the vat room, 
 where they can be shielded from dust. 
 
 The custom of sun exposure practically 
 amounts to a snare and a delusion as it is 
 rarely performed in a proper manner. 
 Usually only the exterior receives the bene- 
 fit of the exposure, as the utensils are placed 
 bottom upward and the sun's rays cannot 
 
 reach the interior. 
 
 100 
 
Utensils 
 
 When so placed that the sun does affect 
 the interior, dirt and flies enter, and further- 
 more the residue of the washing water, in- 
 stead of draining off, collects in the bottom 
 of the can. An enclosed glass box is an 
 effective method, as it permits of the sun 
 exposure as well as guarding against dirt 
 reaching the inside of the utensils. 
 
 The wide topped, coverless milking pail, at 
 present so much in use, should be abandoned 
 for a pail with a narrower opening, about 
 eight inches in diameter, and accompanied 
 by a cover. This cover should always be 
 upon the pail to protect the interior, once it 
 is cleaned, and to protect the milk while 
 being carried from place to place. When a 
 man is milking, this cover should not be laid 
 carelessly on the floor, but hung, top upward, 
 on a convenient hook. After milking, the 
 cover should immediately be placed on the 
 pail and not removed until the milk is about 
 to be poured through the strainer. Many 
 excellent dairies are deficient in this particu- 
 lar. The milk is carried in wide, uncovered 
 
 101 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 pails from the cow to the straining room, a 
 distance of anywhere from twenty-five to 
 one hundred feet, across a cow yard, under a 
 hay loft, or past a manure pile, with a large 
 surface of warm milk exposed to falling dirt 
 and prevalent odors. 
 
 The strainer is a utensil that theoretically 
 should not be used. If milk were produced 
 in a clean manner, the dirt that the strainer 
 is expected to remove would not get into 
 the milk, so straining would be unnecessary. 
 
 No reliance can be placed on the strainer's 
 ability to make up for previous careless 
 handling of milk. Bacterial dirt once in 
 milk has done its harm, and the strainer will 
 certainly not reduce, and most probably does 
 increase, the bacteria already present. 
 
 For this reason it cannot be kept too scru- 
 pulously clean, and should be boiled for an 
 hour and dried in the oven at least once, and 
 preferably twice, a day. 
 
 The best strainer for the average dairy- 
 man is a metal vessel with a 100-wire mesh, 
 set in the sides rather than the bottom of 
 
 102 
 
Utensils 
 
 the vessel. This wire should be replaced 
 once it becomes broken or rusted, and in 
 cleaning should be scrubbed with a small, 
 stiff bristle brush. 
 
 When milk is strained through a cloth, 
 such as canton flannel, cheesecloth, Turkish 
 towelling, or thick linen, the cloth must be 
 kept scrupulously clean. After being 
 washed in the manner prescribed for wash- 
 ing milk utensils, they should be sterilized 
 by baking in the oven for thirty minutes, 
 wrapped in paper or cloth, and kept wrapped 
 until required for use. 
 
 Absorbent cotton, when used for strain- 
 ing, should be used only once and then 
 destroyed. 
 
 The receiving can, usually the typical 
 forty-quart can familiar to every one, is the 
 responsibility of the dealer. He should not 
 only furnish cans which are constructed 
 properly as to material, tight seams, etc., but 
 he should deliver these cans to the farmer 
 daily, in such condition that the latter need 
 only remove the cover to pour in the milk 
 
 103 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 and then replace it, not to be removed again 
 until the milk is delivered out of the farmer's 
 charge. This can be accomplished by clean- 
 ing the cans at the country receiving station, 
 sterilizing them, and delivering them to the 
 farmer, who may take them away covered 
 and keep them so until ready to fill them 
 with milk. 
 
 It should be an invariable rule that milk 
 cans are to be used for no other purpose 
 than to contain milk on its way from the 
 dairy to the receiving station. 
 
 The milking stool deserves a word. As 
 this is handled by the milker at least twice 
 for every cow milked, it follows that it 
 should be clean, and not in a condition to 
 defile the hands. Some farmers have recog- 
 nized this and regularly boil them. 
 
THE BOTTLING OF MILK 
 
 CHAPTER Xn. 
 
 THE advantages of bottled milk over 
 the old style "dipped" milk are so 
 generally recognized that it is hard- 
 ly necessary to make a recommendation. 
 
 The exposure of dipped milk to contam- 
 inating sources is endless. The forty-quart 
 can will be opened a hundred times on a 
 dirty, ill-smelling wagon, standing in numer- 
 ous streets and avenues, whose atmospheres 
 register a tremendous bacterial count, or in 
 a retailer's shop, with its dirt and odors and 
 the long procession of customers of every 
 degree of contamination or infection. 
 
 When hawked about from house to house 
 and family to family the exposure is even 
 worse. Bottled milk, on the contrary, means 
 a small quantity, and frequently the exact 
 and entire supply of a family, protected 
 from the moment it is bottled and covered 
 until delivered for use. 
 
 In the process of bottling this milk also 
 undergoes an inspection, and the consequent 
 
 105 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 expulsion of sundry strange inhabitants 
 which have entered at the farm, and in the 
 case of dipped milk would have continued 
 their journey for forty-eight hours longer. 
 
 While bottled milk is in general to be 
 preferred to dipped milk, it must not, how- 
 ever, be permitted to masquerade as a supe- 
 rior article merely because it is a small 
 quantity contained in glass, instead of a 
 large quantity contained in tin. 
 
 If bottled milk is to deserve its superiority 
 over dipped milk the bottling must be done 
 in a proper manner. The question to be 
 asked is not " Is it bottled milk? " but " How 
 is it bottled? " The good work done by the 
 milker in protecting milk against exposure 
 must be continued by the bottler, and the 
 rules which guide the milker can also be 
 laid down for the bottler. The exposure of 
 milk must be as small, as harmless, and 
 as short as possible. The bottling room, 
 whether at the dairy or the large bottling 
 establishment, must be cut off from the other 
 rooms and form a separate, isolated room. 
 
 106 
 
The Bottling of Milk 
 
 It should be constructed with the same idea 
 in mind that the great surgeon follows when 
 he plans his operating room. Contamina- 
 tion must be reduced to a minimum. The 
 place is to be kept immaculately clean, and 
 the construction of it should further the 
 accomplishment of this. The walls and ceil- 
 ing should be smooth, and with the floor and 
 the fixtures be cleaned daily by flushing and 
 steaming. 
 
 Provision by means of screens and shades 
 should be made against the blowing in of 
 dust and the entrance of flies, as well as the 
 sun's rays heating the room. 
 
 Adjoining the bottling room, or set into 
 one of the walls, should be the sterilizer, 
 which is an indispensable part of every bot- 
 tling establishment. The sterilizer, to 
 facilitate the work and assist in reducing 
 the exposure of milk, should connect the 
 bottling and the cleaning rooms. Once the 
 bottles have been cleaned they are to be 
 put in the sterilizer at the wash room end, 
 and after sterilization taken out from the 
 
 107 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 bottling room end. At many establishments 
 it has been found practicable to make the 
 sterilizer large enough to contain all the 
 bottles, and thereby use it as storage place 
 until they are needed. This is far more 
 advantageous than the custom of standing 
 them in open racks, exposed to all the con- 
 tamination of a large factory room. 
 
 The persons engaged in the bottling 
 should be selected for their fitness, with as 
 much and even more care than the milkers. 
 In bottling milk is subjected to its greatest 
 exposure, and the process brings the work- 
 ers in closer contact with it. Their health, 
 personal habits, and manner of working 
 should be considered, and, like the milkers, 
 they should make a careful toilet before 
 work and wear clean working suits while 
 engaged near unprotected milk. They 
 should be the only persons allowed to enter 
 the bottling room while milk is exposed, and 
 for this reason arrangements should be 
 made by which milk is brought into the 
 bottling room, and the filled bottles passed 
 
 108 
 
The Bottling of Milk 
 
 out, without the milker or those engaged in 
 the packing and shipping entering. 
 
 Bottling should be done quickly and neat- 
 ly, and the capping and covering keep pace 
 with the filling. The practise of delaying 
 the covering until a large number of bottles 
 is filled is a bad one, as it means a longer 
 exposure of the bottled milk than is neces- 
 sary. The pasteboard caps, which must also 
 be sterilized, should be handled in a cleanly 
 manner, and not laid around in dirty places. 
 
 The overflow from the bottling table is 
 unfit to be bottled, and this milk should not 
 be offered for human consumption. 
 
 As soon as milk is bottled the bottle 
 should be packed in ice ready for shipment. 
 The boxes should have covers and be deep 
 enough to hold sufficient ice to cover the 
 tops of the bottles, as the cream, rising to 
 the top, contains more bacteria than the rest 
 of the milk, and needs thorough icing. 
 
 All utensils and vessels used in bottling 
 milk are subject to the same requirements 
 as other milk vessels. They should be con- 
 
 109 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 structed with a view to reducing the sur- 
 faces coming in contact with milk, and 
 thought should be given to avoiding corners 
 and other lodgments for coagulated milk. 
 Whenever possible, covers should be pro- 
 vided for openings or open vessels, such as 
 receiving vats, carriers, and fillers. All 
 utensils must be cleaned in the manner 
 prescribed for milk vessels, and also steri- 
 lized. The vents of the bottle filler require 
 boiling to clean them properly. 
 
 Bottles need thorough cleaning with cold 
 and hot water, a soda solvent, and a brush, 
 and must also be sterilized. Sterilization of 
 milk bottles in their routine passage from 
 bottling room to consumer and back again 
 is very necessary. The dealer who does not 
 provide for this is criminally neglectful of 
 the sanitary requirements of his business. 
 The bottles are his property, are furnished 
 by him for the use of his customers, and the 
 responsibility for any infection due to them 
 may be laid to him. The vicissitudes of a 
 milk bottle are beyond any one's control, 
 
 no 
 
The Bottling of Milk 
 
 and the uses to which it is put, the thousand 
 and one exposures it undergoes, and the 
 varying customers it serves require that it 
 shall be subjected to the simple and ade- 
 quate precaution of sterilization. 
 
 Bottling for the small farmer is subject to 
 the same requirements. The bottling room 
 should be clean and kept in a sanitary con- 
 dition; it should not be directly connected 
 with the house or the cow barn, and precau- 
 tions taken against the entrance of flies 
 and dirt. 
 
 The sterilization can be accomplished by 
 the use of a wash boiler if no other means 
 are available. 
 
 The packing and shipping should be done 
 apart, and the milker excluded from the 
 bottling room. The milk pails could be 
 passed through a window or door, or the 
 milk poured through an opening in the wall 
 into a receiving vat. From this receiving 
 vat the milk can be directly bottled, warm 
 as it is, and cooled later by the ice covering 
 the bottle in the shipping box. 
 ill 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 Dairy farmers who use a cooler should 
 keep this utensil scrupulously clean, sterilize 
 it, and, until it is to be used, covered with an 
 enveloping cloth or a bag with drawing 
 strings. The ice must be put in before the 
 cloth is removed, that dirt from the ice may 
 not fall on the surface over which the milk 
 is to flow. The use of this additional utensil 
 and the extra handling of milk may be ad- 
 vantageous for the clean dairyman, who 
 really wants to cool the milk thereby, but 
 the man who will not take sufficient care in 
 this process would better not do it at all, 
 as his milk is probably better before passing 
 over the cooler than after. 
 
 Dairymen would do well to consider what 
 they expect to accomplish by using the 
 cooler. If they want to cool milk in that 
 way, and find it a saving of ice, well and 
 good. But if they seek to remove odors from 
 milk, they are working along wrong lines. 
 The so-called cow odor is removed in the best 
 and quickest way by keeping manure out of 
 milk. Food odors can be practically kept 
 
 112 
 
The Bottling of Milk 
 
 out by keeping the food and the odor away 
 from warm milk, and by feeding such foods 
 several hours before or just after milking. 
 Odors will be removed by aeration, but the 
 milk must be aerated warm. And in per- 
 forming aeration the dairyman should 
 assure himself that the removal of odors by 
 such exposure does not become a greater 
 evil through the introduction of countless 
 bacteria and the absorption of the prevalent 
 odor of the place where the aeration takes 
 place. 
 
 lis 
 
THE 
 O F 
 
 O P P 
 THE 
 
 ORTUNITY 
 DEALER 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 IT will hardly be disputed that the per- 
 son with most at stake in the milk busi- 
 ness is the dealer, the man who buys the 
 milk from the dairy farmer and sells it, by 
 retail or wholesale, to the consumer. His 
 city depots and country factories, with the 
 equipment of a widespread delivery system 
 and a manifold paraphernalia of bottles, 
 cans, and boxes, form a very large financial 
 investment, and with this is also pledged his 
 personal reputation. 
 
 In addition to the cares and troubles 
 inseparable from any commercial enterprise, 
 the milk dealer is constantly engaged in 
 maintaining a delicate equilibrium between 
 his farmer and his customer, the main props 
 to his business. The exactions and require- 
 ments of the one must be fulfilled by the 
 other; the cause and the remedy for com- 
 plaints are usually sought at the farm, and 
 the conditions there are reflected in the 
 
 J 24 
 
The Opportunity of the Dealer 
 
 operations in the city. Inasmuch as the 
 dealer is thus intimately concerned in the 
 status of his farmers, it may not be too much 
 to suggest that the dealer should know his 
 farmer as man to man; that with the busi- 
 ness relations should go hand in hand a per- 
 sonal one, from which could result a better 
 knowledge and understanding of each 
 other's difficulties and through this a cor- 
 dial co-operation for the betterment of their 
 mutual interests. Certainly the dealer can 
 Work great improvement at the dairy farms, 
 and he is the man to do it. 
 
 His moral influence in a dairy community 
 can count for much, and in one way at 
 least, if in no other, can this be exerted. 
 This is in the matter of handling and pro- 
 tecting milk once the farmer delivers it into 
 his charge. In other words, the dealer's 
 country establishment, be it creamery, ship- 
 ping station, or what not, should be an 
 object lesson in the care of milk. 
 
 Further, he could erect a model cow barn 
 and maintain a dairy that would be a school 
 
 115 
 
Clean Mill; 
 
 of instruction and an experiment station. It 
 should be conducted on strictly business 
 principles, with practical dairy methods and 
 a system of operations in vogue that any 
 farmer could duplicate. The plans of the 
 buildings, the cost of erecting and maintain- 
 ing them, the cost of the herd and the profit 
 from it, indeed, every item connected with 
 the establishment, should be freely offered 
 for the inspection of the dealer's farmers 
 and available for their use. It should be a 
 practical demonstration of what a dairy 
 farmer can do in the matter of profit, in the 
 matter of producing good milk, and in the 
 matter of keeping it clean. 
 
 An opportunity for the dealer to exercise 
 profitable philanthropy is in the institution 
 of hospital barns and quarantine quarters 
 for his dairy communities. It is not sup- 
 posed that these should be conducted on a 
 charitable basis, but rather be self-support- 
 ing. Where dairy farmers in the vicinity of 
 such an institution number from fifty to one 
 hundred, and their herds approach in round 
 
 116 
 
The Opportunity of the Dealer 
 
 numbers five hundred to a thousand animals, 
 the provision for efficient veterinary service 
 and proper treatment of sick animals would 
 seem welcome and likely to be repaid. 
 
 When milk is once delivered on the deal- 
 er's premises it should be beyond any further 
 risk of contamination or deterioration. The 
 dealer owes it to the farmer on the one hand, 
 and to his customer on the other, that hence- 
 forth the care and protection of this milk 
 should be beyond cavil or reproach. The 
 farmer stands for a large number of individ- 
 uals working under certain difficulties, and 
 allowance is made thereby for some short- 
 comings at the dairy. But at the dealer's 
 establishment conditions are different. It 
 is one place subtending fifty or a hundred 
 dairies, its requirements are comparatively 
 few and simple, definitely known, and can be 
 readily provided for. 
 
 The milk is to be received from the far- 
 mers, at once thoroughly iced, and kept iced 
 until delivered for use. If it is to be bottled, 
 the bottling room and the process of bottling 
 
 117 
 
Clean Mi Ik- 
 
 can be arranged to insure perfect care of the 
 milk. The bottling of milk at the country 
 establishment is the most important part of 
 its routine, and usually its most glaring 
 weakness. If this were accomplished prop- 
 erly the whole tone of the establishment 
 would tend to improve. 
 
 In the receiving of milk from the farmers 
 there is usually to be found some objection- 
 able features. One is pumping milk to a 
 gallery or upper floor and another is admit- 
 ting the farmers in close proximity to the 
 exposed milk in vats or in process of 
 bottling. 
 
 The pumping of milk is most reprehen- 
 sible, as the extent of pipe surface it touches 
 is considerable and the piping is difficult to 
 clean thoroughly. Furthermore, the desired 
 result, namely, the securing of sufficient 
 " fall " for the flow of milk, can be accom- 
 plished in a much more satisfactory way. It 
 should be planned that the wagons drive up 
 to a sufficient elevation to deliver on the up- 
 per floor, or gallery. When the building sets 
 
 118 
 
The Opportunity of the Dealer 
 
 against a hillside this is readily accom- 
 plished, and even when on level ground a 
 bridge driveway six to eight feet high can 
 be built at a cost that is more than justified 
 by the improvement in handing the milk. 
 
 The receiving room should be enclosed and 
 cut off from the bottling room. It is not 
 unusual to find one large room in which milk 
 is flowing over an immense uncovered cooler 
 into uncovered vats, and thence through the 
 various stages of bottling, while at a wide 
 doorway farmers are driving up, depositing 
 their cans, and standing by while the con- 
 tents are weighed or measured. 
 
 It follows as a matter of course that the 
 bottling room should adjoin the receiving 
 room, that the passage of the milk from one 
 to the other may be as short and accom- 
 plished in as simple a manner as possible. 
 In cases where the bottling cannot keep pace 
 with the delivery it is necessary that the 
 milk be received in vats, but there is no rea- 
 son why these vats should not be covered. 
 
 At some stage in the routine of passing 
 
 119 
 
Clean Mill; 
 
 from the receiving to the bottling room the 
 milk should receive its last necessary strain- 
 ing, but preferably should not be strained 
 into the bottle filler. Where this is done 
 properly by the use of a good wire mesh 
 strainer little objection can be made, but the 
 usual method of using loose cheesecloth, 
 which is constantly slipping into the milk, 
 is far worse than no straining at all. 
 
 The requirements for bottling and the 
 need of an isolated room for the purpose 
 have previously been indicated in the chap- 
 ter on Bottling Milk. Once milk is bottled 
 and kept tightly covered the danger of ex- 
 ternal contamination is practically elimin- 
 ated. There remains only one thing to do 
 henceforth, and that is, pile on ice. Not only 
 at the country establishment and on the 
 railroad train, but also, and more particu- 
 larly, when on the delivery wagons in the 
 city, should bottled milk be kept iced. Care- 
 ful dealers have come to recognize this, and 
 now provide stations where their delivery 
 
 men re-ice in the course of the morning's 
 
 120 
 
The Opportunity of the Dealer 
 
 delivery. Too much labor and watchfulness 
 has been expended in protecting milk at its 
 danger period to be turned to naught 
 through the lack of sufficient icing during 
 delivery. 
 
 The cleanliness of cans has a far more 
 important bearing on the production of clean 
 milk than many dealers suppose. If a far- 
 mer be given a can actually clean and ster- 
 ilized he is relieved of one labor which, with 
 his limited facilities, he can hardly do prop- 
 erly. He may keep the can covered, and so 
 protected against contamination, until just 
 before he fills it with milk; when filled he 
 may recover it promptly, ignoring the ex- 
 ploded " animal odor " idea, and let the ani- 
 mal heat subside in the usual process of 
 cooling. 
 
 The reduction in harmful exposure accom- 
 plished by furnishing to the farmer cans in 
 proper condition is so great that it would 
 repay any dealer to provide for it. It only 
 means doing thoroughly what is now done 
 
 carelessly, that is, the washing of the cans, 
 121 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 and, in addition, the installation of a steril- 
 izer, which at most is not a heavy expendi- 
 ture, and in a pinch could be built by the 
 dealer's employees. 
 
 It is hardly expected that cans will be 
 thoroughly cleaned while the farmer waits 
 for them. A double set is required, but this 
 provision is frequently of itself an econ- 
 omy, and numerous dealers have already 
 adopted it. 
 
 Once the cans are emptied of milk they 
 should be rinsed in cold water to prevent 
 coagulation of the milk remaining in the 
 can and also to remove as much as possible 
 of this milk. Then they should be scrubbed 
 in hot water, to which has been added a sol- 
 vent, and finally rinsed in clean hot water. 
 They are then ready to be put upside down 
 in the sterilizer, and, after sterilization and 
 drying, covered, and the cans stored in racks 
 ready for the farmers to secure them on the 
 following morning. 
 
 122 
 
MARKET MILK 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 AFTER all has been said and done in 
 the movement for clean milk, the 
 great question is still: "What of 
 the market milk?" the millions of quarts 
 consumed daily by the public institutions, 
 the hotels and eating places, and by the 
 great mass of the population, who seem to 
 know little and care less about the food they 
 eat. Cheapness is the one consideration, 
 and low-priced milk is accepted, regardless 
 of the condition of the dairies, the health 
 and treatment of the cows, and the unclean 
 persons handling the milk. It seems like 
 trying to help people who will not help 
 themselves, but in the progress of the move- 
 ment for clean milk this phase of it must 
 sooner or later receive attention. It is so 
 great and affects so large a proportion of 
 the population that eventually the State 
 will have to grapple with it. Until then, 
 what can be done? The dealers engaged in 
 purveying this immense quantity are either 
 
 123 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 indifferent or benumbed with helplessness. 
 They see no advantage in improving the 
 methods at their dairies, while their cus- 
 tomers, not yet alive to the truly remarkable 
 value of this almost indispensable food, will 
 not contribute the additional fraction neces- 
 sary for an improved article. Whatever 
 plan is devised, then, must appeal to the 
 dealer and the farmer as accruing to their 
 advantage; it should call for very little addi- 
 tional expense to either party, and the less 
 it changes the present routine the more 
 favorable is likely to be its reception. Such 
 a plan is here advanced. It requires of the 
 dealer only that he shall thoroughly wash 
 and sterilize the forty-quart cans furnished 
 to the farmer. The latter is asked in turn 
 to do these things : 
 
 Keep the cows' flanks clear of manure by 
 using an old broom daily. 
 
 Use only pure water in the barn and the 
 dairy. 
 
 Avoid contact with contagious diseases. 
 
 Wash his hands before milking. 
 
 124 
 
 m : b colS°ub^ 
 
Market Milk 
 
 Boil his milking pail and strainer. 
 
 Cover the forty-quart can as soon as filled, 
 and keep it covered. 
 
 Cool the milk, either by icing or putting 
 the cans in vats. 
 
 Milk produced according to these direc- 
 tions is not likely to be a vehicle for the 
 transmission of the germs of the cummunic- 
 able diseases, and should show a bacterial 
 count of not more than 100,000 per c.c. What 
 this means in the way of improvement is evi- 
 dent if it be considered that much of the 
 daily supply in New York city shows a count 
 of millions of bacteria per c.c. 
 
 It should be evident that the dealer, as a 
 return for some extra care in cleaning cans 
 and the installation of a sterilizer, which, it 
 must be remembered, is not an expensive 
 machine, not only obtains an improvement 
 in the general keeping qualities of his com- 
 modity, but, furthermore, has a definite 
 assurance of cleanliness. 
 
 The farmer, also, can assure himself that 
 he is producing a better article, and doing it 
 
 125 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 with hardly appreciable additional labor 
 and expense. If keeping the cows free of 
 manure and boiling his utensils be an added 
 labor, they are practically offset by the sim- 
 plification of his routine, as the covering of 
 the can immediately relieves him of much 
 other care and trouble. 
 
 It is expected that objections will be made 
 to this plan on the score of " animal odor " 
 and animal heat. The animal odor bugaboo 
 should have been banished long ago, and it 
 is high time that dairy farmers learn that 
 the so-called " cowy odor " is due to manure, 
 a statement which is capable of being easily 
 demonstrated. 
 
 Animal heat is the heat natural in milk 
 when at body temperature, and differs in no 
 way from other heat. Keduce the tempera- 
 ture and you reduce the animal heat. Ani- 
 mal heat is only harmful because it allows 
 the bacteria, which entered with the dirt, to 
 grow and ferment the milk. 
 
 Recurring to the scientist who draws milk 
 from the teat of the cow through a glass 
 
 126 
 
Market Milk 
 
 tube into a glass bottle. He surely imprisons 
 animal heat in his bottle of milk, yet be- 
 cause no bacteria entered it will keep sweet 
 for years at room temperature. 
 
 Full cognizance is taken of the conditions 
 likely to prevail at dairies. It is even ex- 
 pected that this plan shall be put in force 
 at establishments where the cow stables 
 shall be in an extremely filthy state, and it 
 is devised to meet just such conditions. 
 Until adequate measures are taken to im- 
 prove unsanitary establishments the present 
 evils should be mitigated as much as pos- 
 sible. No matter how defective and unclean 
 a dairy may be, it is believed that the simple 
 rules laid down will be effective in producing 
 a reasonably clean milk. They have been 
 tested at a hundred isolated establishments 
 under the most varying circumstances, and 
 the results have always been satisfactory. 
 In one dairy community in New York State 
 the system has been in successful operation 
 for months, the daily production amounting 
 to three thousand quarts. 
 
 127 
 
THE DUTY OF THE 
 CONSUMER 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 IT would be strange indeed if no responsi- 
 bility rested on the person for whom the 
 dairy farmer and the milk dealer have 
 been roused to better efforts in their activi- 
 ties. The custom has long been to attack 
 the milk problem at the producer's end, and 
 while the wisdom of this course is unques- 
 tionable it should be apparent that, once the 
 production of milk is raised to a satisfactory 
 standard, the attention of the consumer of 
 milk should be directed to what this im- 
 provement entails. After all, it is the con- 
 sumer who is the cause of solicitude, whose 
 protection enlists the interest of scientific 
 societies and prompts the watchfulness of 
 health officials. 
 
 This precious individual has heretofore 
 been guarded against deception in the mat- 
 ter of the chemical properties of milk. Now 
 and henceforth there is the assurance of 
 esthetic and hygienic safeguards. Not even 
 the most exquisite palate need hesitate to 
 
 128 
 
The Duty of the Consumer 
 
 drink milk, as it is doubtful if any other 
 article of food is now produced with the 
 same attendant cleanliness through all its 
 various handlings. Immunity against the 
 communication of disease has been amply 
 provided by the utilization of modern scien- 
 tific knowledge. What is beyond the power 
 of the householder, namely, a knowledge and 
 a supervision of the source of the family food 
 supply, has been accomplished for him, by 
 the co-operation of health officials, physi- 
 cians, milk dealers, and dairy farmers. 
 Under an inspected system of milk produc- 
 tion there is assured to the consumer a scru- 
 tiny of the methods and the equipment of the 
 dairy farm whence comes the family supply. 
 The fact that so important a food as milk 
 is placed beyond suspicion as to the manner 
 of its production should be cause for public 
 rejoicing. It should inspire in the consumer 
 of milk a confidence regarding it, and induce 
 him to use more of it, as milk, in food value, 
 is unsurpassed by any other one article util- 
 ized for the sustenance of life. 
 
 129 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 This notable advance in hygienic food pro- 
 duction calls for public acknowledgment 
 and deserves proper appreciation by all per- 
 sons interested in the purity of the food they 
 eat. In domestic economy, the improved 
 methods at present in vogue in the kitchen 
 and diniDg room indicate the progress of 
 modern civilization, and if the producer of 
 food in the field of his activity has accom- 
 plished an advance comparable to that 
 which has taken place in the preparation 
 and in the service of food, his achievement is 
 certainly noteworthy and deserving of com- 
 pensation. The best type of milk dealer has 
 put on public sale a food commodity whose 
 production challenges comparison with any- 
 thing done in the cleanest kitchen in the 
 land. The consumer should consider the milk 
 dealer's regard for cleanliness as a personal 
 service, and as he is a merchant, not an altru- 
 ist, the acknowledgment should be made in a 
 very practical way, namely, by paying him 
 a fair price for the article. 
 
 What a bottle of clean milk, produced in 
 
 130 
 
The Duty of the Consumer 
 
 accordance with the new requirements of 
 dairying, represents should be brought to the 
 attention of every householder. Few can 
 have any knowledge or supervision of their 
 food supply, but the consciousness that milk, 
 at least, may be placed above suspicion 
 marks a most important advance in hygienic 
 food production. The consumer of milk may, 
 for a slight additional cost, obtain the 
 assurance that the milk brought into the 
 house has been produced with attendant 
 cleanliness and hygienic safeguards far in 
 advance of the methods pursued in the aver- 
 age kitchen. This assurance stands for 
 healthy animals receiving humane treat- 
 ment, the milking performed amid cleanly 
 surroundings, by workers who have carefully 
 prepared for their task; the milk received 
 into vessels cleaned far better than most 
 kitchen utensils, and, once in these vessels, 
 henceforth protected against contamination, 
 preserved in a proper manner, and delivered 
 to the consumer with its entire history ac- 
 companying it. 
 
 131 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 To point out to the consumer a duty in 
 connection with this superior milk should be 
 unnecessary. It is usually the women of the 
 family who are charged with the purchasing 
 of food, and it is for them to decide whether 
 the labors of scientific workers and the en- 
 terprise of dealers and farmers shall be 
 fruitless or not. No better field for civic 
 labor and the advancement of the public 
 good is offered than the seconding of these 
 efforts for the improvement of the milk sup- 
 ply. A woman should consider her family 
 milk supply as of the first importance; it 
 should not be left to servants or the janitor 
 to decide what dealer shall supply the milk. 
 She herself should take an interest in it and 
 make inquiries as to the source of supply 
 and the manner of producing it. When she 
 bestows her patronage on the dealer who 
 has expended money and labor to secure a 
 good milk she has the satisfaction of know- 
 ing that her discrimination in his favor, 
 against the dealer who does not care, counts 
 for widespread benefit. It stands for the 
 
 132 
 
The Duty of the Consumer 
 
 encouragement of the conscientious dealer, 
 a more adequate payment of the dairy far- 
 mer, and the improvement of the milk supply 
 of the poor who cannot afford to pay for a 
 special milk. 
 
 The family physician, as part of his duty to 
 his patients, should be in a position to 
 recommend milk produced with proper sani- 
 tary precautions; and if he be deficient the 
 consumer has recourse to the health officials, 
 who regard it as a pleasure to supply in- 
 formation as to what is good food, and where 
 one may go for information concerning its 
 production. 
 
 A proper knowledge of milk should be 
 considered an indispensable part of the 
 equipment of a housekeeper. No person 
 charged with the responsibility of furnish- 
 ing food can afford to be ignorant of what 
 milk represents in the regimen of human 
 diet. Its value is becoming appreciated 
 throughout the entire world, and the con- 
 sumption greatly increased. It is recog- 
 nized as a complete food, containing, as it 
 
 133 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 does, a proportion of the elements found in 
 the nitrogenous food, the carbohydrates, 
 and the fats, and, in addition, many of the 
 minerals required by the human body. As 
 the result of the labors of scientific men im- 
 proved methods have been devised for its 
 production and preservation, and apprehen- 
 sion on esthetic or hygienic grounds has been 
 almost entirely removed. 
 
 The advance made by the dairy farmer and 
 the milk dealer require that the consumer 
 shall also organize the methods in order 
 that the improvement accomplished by them 
 may be maintained and extended. The 
 treatment of milk in the average household 
 is woefully careless, and done without 
 knowledge of the why and wherefore. The 
 prevailing belief that a thunderstorm is the 
 cause of milk souring is one instance of mis- 
 understanding. The fact that it is easy to 
 purchase milk which will not sour during a 
 thunderstorm should suggest to the con- 
 sumer that there must be some other reason. 
 And the reason is the presence of lactic acid 
 
 134 
 
The Duty of the Consumer 
 
 forming bacteria in the milk. Secure milk 
 which does not contain these bacteria and it 
 will not sour. It is not disputed that milk 
 sours during a thunderstorm, but the cause 
 is not the thunderstorm itself, but certain 
 conditions accompanying it, which are favor- 
 able to the action of lactic acid bacteria. 
 
 The consumer should further brush up his 
 knowledge of bacteria and be primed on the 
 difference between clean earth and bacterial 
 dirt. The former is harmless, while the lat- 
 ter is an enemy to be ceaselessly and vigi- 
 lantly guarded against. The milkman who 
 proudly holds up to view a bottle of milk, 
 clear of visible soil, should be compelled to 
 give something more reliable than this spec- 
 tacular exhibition. He should be asked to 
 demonstrate as well the absence of bacterial 
 contamination, and compelled to give proof 
 that in his process of extracting soil, which 
 may be perfectly harmless, he has not added 
 to the milk numbers of lactic acid and other 
 harmful bacteria. 
 
 Milk in the household is governed by the 
 
 135 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 very same rules which are in force at the 
 dairy farm. It is a manifest injustice to the 
 farmer and the dealer that, after their con- 
 scientious efforts to deliver milk in a whole- 
 some condition, it should be spoiled through 
 carelessness or ignorance on the part of the 
 householder. There is even a greater need 
 for proper care, as, by the time milk reaches 
 the consumer, Nature's provision for preserv- 
 ing milk has been exhausted. 
 
 The care of milk may be briefly stated: 
 Expose it as little as possible and keep it 
 iced. 
 
 Once the dealer delivers it his responsibil- 
 ity is ended and that of the consumer begins. 
 It should never be permitted to stand for 
 hours before being placed in the ice box. 
 Where it is delivered before people are 
 awake provision for icing it in warm weather 
 should be made. As one of the "modern 
 conveniences," so much vaunted in city 
 apartments, there should be an ice box for 
 containing milk until the tenants are ready 
 to care for it. Such a receptacle would pay 
 
 136 
 
The Duty of the Consumer 
 
 for itself many times over by the milk it 
 would save from spoiling. 
 
 Once milk is received in the family it 
 should go immediately into the ice box and 
 be kept in a compartment separate from 
 strong-smelling foods. The bottle, if not 
 covered by a sealed cap, should be cleaned 
 before being opened, and always kept cov- 
 ered when milk is not being poured out. 
 
 It must be recognized that milk shall go 
 into none but clean vessels, and these ves- 
 sels shall always have a cover. 
 
 For the dining table, milk should be served 
 after the manner of coffee, in a pot, accom- 
 panied by a small cup or glass for drinking. 
 The milk pot should be made after the style 
 of a syrup pitcher, with a tight-fitting cover. 
 
 In hotels, restaurants, and other public 
 eating places, whose cuisine and service is 
 otherwise faultless, the manner of serving 
 milk is antiquated. Whereas in families and 
 households, bottled milk has long been in 
 use, there still remains in hotels and restau- 
 rants, the unclean practise of dipping milk 
 
 137 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 from large receptacles. All the thought and 
 attention lavished on other foods is denied 
 to milk, which in fact requires the most care- 
 ful protection. Just as the wine and finer 
 grades of beer and ale are brought to the 
 table in sealed bottles, so also should milk, 
 and brands of milk of known reputation for 
 cleanliness. The hotel keeper has no excuse 
 for not furnishing milk in this manner, as 
 many dealers are able to supply him with 
 pint or quart jars, which have been sealed at 
 the dairy, and the question of cost is not to 
 be considered. At most it is only a fraction 
 more than the present objectionable method 
 calls for and the advance in cleanliness is 
 imperatively needed. Certainly the patrons 
 of expensive hotels are entitled to every re- 
 finement in the service of their food, and a 
 bottle of milk, known to have been produced 
 and delivered with a regard for cleanliness, 
 is no longer a luxury. 
 
 Flies must be ever and constantly guarded 
 against. A fly in milk should be considered 
 an offense and. when sickness exists in the 
 
 138 
 
The Duty of the Consumer 
 
 house, sufficient cause to discard the por- 
 tion of milk it has touched. A good rule to 
 follow is that only the amount needed for 
 immediate use should be taken from the 
 main supply in the ice box. 
 
 The exact value of pasteurization and 
 sterilization of milk should be clearly under- 
 stood and the effect of these processes not 
 exaggerated. They are effective for the time 
 being and are a protection against the con- 
 tamination which has already taken place. 
 They do not, however, operate to control 
 future contamination, and it is folly to sup- 
 pose that milk once heated to 174° F., or 
 even to the boiling point, has been made 
 proof against the action of bacteria, which 
 enter after the milk has undergone either of 
 these processes. Pasteurized milk and ster- 
 ilized milk cannot be exposed with impunity, 
 nor can they be preserved without proper 
 icing. The same care and treatment ac- 
 corded raw milk must be given to them if 
 the good effects of the heating processes are 
 to be retained. 
 
 139 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 Milk vessels should be selected primarily 
 with a view to their adaptability to thor- 
 ough cleaning, which means also their 
 adaptability to keeping milk sweet. Much 
 of the souring of milk, not only in the house- 
 hold but also at the dairy farms and in the 
 milk dealers' stores, may be ascribed to im- 
 j>roper cleaning of utensils used to contain 
 milk. Coagulated milk contains great num- 
 bers of lactic acid forming bacteria, which 
 effect the souring of milk, and in milk ves- 
 sels this coagulated milk lodges in seams, 
 rims, crevices, and corners. 
 
 It follows, therefore, that milk vessels 
 should not be fancy in shape with narrow 
 necks and ornamented with flutings and 
 indentations. The interior, at least, should 
 be designed to resemble a hollow sphere, 
 bowl shaped, with smooth, even sides form- 
 ing with the bottom a rounded corner. 
 
 The use of tin vessels is in general to be 
 avoided, because of their tendency to rust 
 and the liability of open seams. 
 
 The cleaning of vessels cannot be done too 
 
 140 
 
The Duty of the Consumer 
 
 carefully. A vessel once used to contain 
 milk should, unless it be used again imme- 
 diately, be considered unfit for use again 
 until it has been cleaned. Proper cleaning 
 consists in first rinsing the vessel in cold 
 water, secondly, washing it in hot water, to 
 which has been added a solvent, such as soap 
 or washing powder, thirdly, rinsing it in 
 clean, hot water, and, lastly, draining it. 
 
 The milk bottle has great possibilities as 
 the object of a campaign of education. A 
 diffusion of knowledge concerning the 
 proper use of this article would be no slight 
 contribution to the improvement of the milk 
 supply, and would, at the same time, count 
 as a useful and necessary addition to 
 hygienic practise. Needless to say, the milk 
 dealer would rejoice exceedingly if this came 
 to pass. The misuse of the milk bottle is for 
 him a burning topic of discussion and an 
 incitement to denunciation, for it amounts 
 to such an imposition that the consumer 
 should hasten to give the dealer his due: re- 
 turn his bottles, and return them clean. 
 
 141 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 The pecuniary loss inflicted upon the 
 dealer through the destruction and misap- 
 propriation of milk bottles by his customers 
 is out of all proportion to the extent of the 
 business transaction involved. It is an in- 
 stance of downright injustice, and no one 
 cognizant of the magnitude of the abuse can 
 fail to sympathize with the dealer. The 
 truth of his grievance is obvious to every 
 observer, and the facts point to a most 
 reprehensible thoughtlessness among many 
 people who purchase bottled milk. 
 
 In the existing conditions of things the 
 dealer must provide a bottle, and present the 
 use of it as a gift pure and simple to his cus- 
 tomer. The invention of the familiar quart 
 bottle was itself a boon to the consumer of 
 milk, and when there is added the free use 
 of it, even though it be an act of compulsory 
 generosity, one would expect, from the usual 
 faith in one's fellow beings, some acknowl- 
 edgment of the indebtedness. What actu- 
 ally happens has changed many a decent, 
 wholesouled milkman into a cynical pessi- 
 
 142 
 
r— — — i 
 
 o ~J g 
 
 > UJ 
 
 i- o ;| 
 
 CC UJ 
 
 0. — 1 1 
 
 tt o 1 
 
 •a 
 
 II 
 
The Duty of the Consumer 
 
 mist of the worst stripe. His bottles dis- 
 appear at a rate that makes him think that 
 his customers are consuming the bottles as 
 well as the milk contained in them. Too 
 often they go up the dumb waiter and that 
 is the end of them, as far as the dealer is 
 concerned. A good share of his profits, or it 
 may be his working capital, goes for new 
 bottles, while his lost ones, or rather those 
 which have escaped the garbage barrel, re- 
 appear in various capacities in the custom- 
 er's household. 
 
 The dealer is deprived of the use of his 
 property, and this property will be even 
 destroyed with never a thought of compen- 
 sation therefor. This is manifest injustice, 
 and the sufferer thereby feels it keenly. The 
 business of retailing bottled milk at the 
 best does not boast any such profit that the 
 destruction of bottles can be calmly charged 
 up to profit and loss, and if the milkman's 
 pecuniary reward be almost wiped out by 
 the loss in bottles, what in the world has 
 he left for the hardships and exacting labor 
 
 143 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 of his calling? The consciousness that he 
 has performed a service to society may ap- 
 peal to an altruist, but it is extremely poor 
 satisfaction for a merchant such as the milk- 
 man. 
 
 The restitution of the milk bottle may be 
 a matter of ethical conduct for the medita- 
 tion of the consumer, but the use and misuse 
 of the article concerns the entire community. 
 For a vessel designed and intended only to 
 contain a fluid food destined to pass between 
 human lips, the vicissitudes of the milk bot- 
 tle are beyond comprehension. It ekes out 
 many a meagre crockery closet, and in 
 numerous households is put to divers repre- 
 hensible uses. The various purposes ful- 
 filled by this food receptacle would make a 
 catalogue of astonishing length and variety, 
 and the abuse has grown to such propor- 
 tions that prompt and vigorous action 
 should be taken. A campaign of education 
 on milk and milk vessels would do much to 
 remedy the evil, and local boards of health, 
 by incorporating in their regulations a pro- 
 
 144 
 
The Duty of the Consumer 
 
 vision limiting the use of milk bottles, could 
 impress people with the necessity for reserv- 
 ing this article for its purpose. 
 
 The fact that epidemics of contagious 
 diseases have been traced to milk bottles 
 which came from houses where the disease 
 existed indicates a plain duty of the con- 
 sumer. In case of any communicable disease 
 in the family no milk bottle should leave the 
 premises unless it has been boiled for ten 
 minutes. 
 
 The cleaning of milk bottles before they 
 are returned to the dealer is incumbent upon 
 every person who uses bottled milk. The 
 simplest rule of good housekeeping calls for 
 this, and proper methods in the kitchen 
 would accomplish it as a matter of course. 
 It is one of the small things whose moral 
 effect may be considerable. The difference 
 between returning to the milkman a clean 
 bottle and an unclean or filthy one is not 
 lost upon him, or upon the other individu- 
 als who handle it in the course of its journey 
 to and from the consumer. 
 
 145 
 
Clean Milk 
 
 After the bottles are cleaned they should 
 not be placed in basements or areaways, but 
 kept in the household until the milkman 
 calls for them. This practise is necessary 
 because of the protection required by the 
 bottles. In the interval between leaving the 
 consumer's hands and coming into the care 
 of the milkman they may be subjected to 
 many undesirable uses, and are liable to be 
 seriously contaminated, a result to the pre- 
 vention of which the consumer should lend 
 his assistance. 
 
 nw/ 
 
 429 W3 "Eft 
 
 B4/»/fe" 245 ~ *