The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1909-10-21

| /. Exposure to Air in the Stable
Two lters (about two quarts) of ster-
ilized milk were placed in a sterile
pail and exposed sevet minutes to
the stable air in passageway behind
the cows. This stable was doubtless
cleaner than the average and the air
contained less dust than is often
found in places where milk is being
handled. Immediately after this ex.
posture the milk was plated and
found to contain $500 bacteria per
| cubic centimeter (about fifteen
drops); in other words, between s.,
| 100000 and 100000 bacteria had fall
len into the two liters of milk in this
short time.
q Pouring Milk-When milk is
poured from one vessel to another a
very large surface is exposed to the
air and great numbers of bacteria are
swallowed up. The following tests il
lustrate this point: About five liters
of milk were poured from one can to
another eight times in the stable air.
1t was found, after pouring, that this
milk contained practically 100 bac-
terra per cubic centimeter more than
it contained before pouring; in other
words, about 100000 bacteria had got
into the milk because of this ex-
posture.
I'm another similar experiment,
when there was little moro dust in
the air, the contamination due to
pouring eight times was two and one
half times greater than in the pre-
ceding experiment.
The Importance of pouring milk
as little as possible from one vessel
to another has suggested to DR. J.
Roby, of the Rochester Health De-
partment that milking pals should be
made larger than those now used and
Immediately closed after the COW has
been MIXED. The milk should then be
cooled and delivered in these same
some ways this suggestion is most
excellent one, but it may he that un-
der certain conditions the disad-
vantages of this method OF handling
milk would exceed the advantages.
8. Contaminated Utensils Much
contamination of milk results from
putting it into dishes that have been
cleaned and then exposed where dust
can fall into them. In experiments to
determine what this kind of contain
ination amounts to it has been found
that when little care is taken to pro-
tect the dishes the milk will often
contain several hundred times as
many bacteria as when the utensils
were protected from dust. In order to
illustrate this point, two pals were
carefully washed and sterilized. One
of them was covered with sterile
cloth to keep dust from falling into
it. The other was left exposed to the
air of clean creamery for only
few minutes. A small quantity Of ster-
lie milk was then put into each pail,
rinsed around and then examined for
numbers of bacteria. 1t was found
that the milk in the pail which was
not protected from dust contained
1000 more bacteria per cubic cent?
meter than the milk in the protected
pail.
1. Contamination from the Cows
Udder and Rody.-Great numbers of
bacteria fall into the milk when it is
neing drawn from the udder because
the milking pail is directly under the
udder, which is being shaken more or
less by the mixers hands. rhis kind
of contamination may be reduced by
cleaning the udder. 1t was found that
streile milk exposed under the uGder
as long as it takes to milk cow and
while the udder was being shaken
about the same as when milk Is being
drawn contained 10000 bacteria per
cubic centimeter. In this case the I'd
der had been wiped off with dry
cloth much in the same way as is
done in fairly good dairies
I'm a similar test the udder was
wiped with a camp cloth and then the
number of bacteria was reduced to
$500 per cubic centimeter. In tnird
experiment the udder was wiped with
cloth dampened in per cent car
tolic acid solution; then the number
OF bacie ria vas 1920 per cubic cen
tima;rr. In cases in which NO p'.it;"u-
| lar care is taken to clean the uddcr
the bacteria getting into the milk
from this source may run up into the
hundreds of thousands o" millions
What Is a Gentleman?
I'll have to give you the real de-