DAIRYING

Keeping Milk Clean and Sweet

PROPER METHODS

A digest of bulletins published by the Dominion Department of Agriculture, and excerpts from
other articles.
For further information on this subject write to your nearest Agricultural College or
Experimental Farm. A list of these is given in Farm News Sheet No. 46.

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ISSUED BY

EATON’S FARM NEWS SERVICE
WINNIPEG, CANADA

FIG. 1—AN EFFICIENT MILK STRAINER

4. Large funnel which fits over a milk can. 2. Absorbent cotton filter. 3. Fine wire strainer and receptacle for
cotton filter, and the coarse screen, No. 4, which holds the cotton in place in the receptacle. When assembled, the
complete strainer is placed in the neck of the funnel. 5. Commercial package of filters with some filters in front. These
filters are used once only and then burned.

Whole milk, in its fresh, clean state, may be said to be the ideal food. Unfortunate-
ly, other living things besides human beings and calves find cow’s milk an ideal food.
Bacteria, more popularly known as germs or microbes, also thrive on milk. It is due to
the presence and growth of bacteria in milk that this food may become a source of danger
to health, or go bad, so that it becomes useless for food or for further manufacture.

Bacteria are so minute that they cannot be seen with the naked eye. It is commonly
supposed that all bacteria are disease producing, but this is not true. Only a few kinds
of bacteria are able to cause disease to man or animals. Many other kinds are of distinct
value to mankind.

At temperatures of 70° to 100° F., bacteria found in milk increase rapidly. Below
50° the growth is much slower, hence the reason for storing milk in a cool place. High
temperatures will kill bacteria, and it is for this reason that milk is pasteurized.

Some milk producers imagine that because the milk they produce is to be pasteur-
ized before it reaches the consumer, they do not need to be particularly careful about
handling it. There are also consumers who imagine that because the milk they buy has
been pasteurized it must be good milk. Both of these ideas are somewhat erroneous.
The object of pasteurization, briefly, is to make milk safe; it can never hope to turn bad
milk into good, clean milk. Pasteurization can never replace cleanliness in production.

As absolutely germ-free milk is not practically possible, it is sufficient to consider
clean milk as milk from healthy cows, free from dirt and foreign matter, and containing
only a small number of bacteria, none of which are disease-producing.

HOW CAN CLEAN MILK BE PRODUCED?

There are four simple but very necessary and vital factors in the production of milk
with a low bacterial content. These are:

1. Sterilized utensils. 2. Clean cows with clean udders and teats at milking time.
3. The small-top pail. 4. Rapid cooling, and holding the milk at a temperature of 50 deg.
Fahr. or lower.

Sterilized Utensils—Imperfectly cleaned, unsterilized milk pails are one of the chief
sources of bacterial contamination of milk; this is equally true of every other milk con-
tainer or utensil with which milk comes in contact.

All utensils should be washed and sterilized after each using. First rinse with cold
water, then wash thoroughly with warm water and washing soda, using a brush. Finally

rinse with lots of scalding water and place on a rack in a bright, airy room, free from
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