Smyrna Times

METHOD USED TO DETERMINE
QUALITY OF MILK SUPPLY

DAIRIES TAKE EVERY PHASE
OF WORK INTO ACCOUNT

Attention Should Be Placed Upon
Details Stated To Safeguard
the Public and Consumer

Everyone appreciates the value of milk as a food. They understand, too, the necessity of insisting that it be of a good quality and that it be collected under conditions which assure safety to the user. Its composition is such that germ life readily multiplies in it. It is essential that it be preserved from infection by this germ life.

Scoring the dairies which supply milk is one of the methods taken to make sure that the milk obtained is of a satisfactory quality. The scoring takes into account the construction and lay out of the premises, the measures taken to safeguard the health of the cattle, the cleanliness of the barn, the cattle, the milker and the utensils, and the care of the milk until it is handed over to the consumer.

A light airy barn, so built that it is possible to keep it constantly clean is one of the first requisites. There is difficulty in keeping the cows healthy if the space they occupy is too crowded and if there is inadequate light and ventilation. Important vitamins may be absent from the milk if the cows are not exposed to the sunshine at frequent intervals, or if the fodder is dry and deficient in those life giving constituents.

The cleanliness of the cows is important. Clipping the hair from the udder and flanks and thorough grooming the cow before milking encourages this cleanliness. Otherwise there is almost a surety that more or less dirt will fall into the milking pail when milking is in progress. The use of a small mouthed milk pail provides an additional factor of safety.

The scoring notes the care taken to see that all utensils used are clean. Milk decomposes or sours quickly, especially so if the pails contain some of the residue of former milkings. Through cleansing with hot water or steam is the best way to insure their being in readiness for the next milking.

Water of ample amount and of proven purity is an essential in the dairy. The milker himself should be brought under observation for the purpose of judging his habits of personal cleanliness and his freedom from contagious diseases. There have been instances almost too numerous to count, of the transference of severe infections from the milker to those who use the product of the dairy.

The desire to prevent the possibility of such a transfer is the reason which prompts a very commonly found regulation, viz, that all rooms used as sleeping quarters shall be separated from rooms in which milk is stored, or in which utensils used in milking are kept.

The germs usually found in milk multiply slowly in a lowered temperature. On this account, the immediate cooling of the milk is a very valuable portion of the effort made to prevent the rapid multiplication of germ growth which may occur under certain conditions.

The scoring of any dairy is incomplete which does not take into account the appliances provided for rapidly cooling the milk to a suitable temperature.

Attention to these details will have gone far towards providing a satisfactory food product.