Page:The story of milk.djvu/61

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CHAPTER II

Milk Supply and Creamery Products


In the first chapter the composition of cow's milk and the nature of its constituents have been considered, the most important tests for its richness and purity have been described, and the ferments have been mentioned which instigate changes for good or for bad, together with the means at disposal for regulating their activity. To use these means intelligently in handling milk and its products is the key to the dairyman's success.

We shall now briefly consider the various steps that are of importance in modern dairy industry.


MILK SUPPLY

In the first place, the farmer must furnish pure, clean, unadulterated milk, fresh from the cow and cooled immediately after milking. His cows must be healthy.


Bovine Tuberculosis.—Many milk-cows, for the very reason that they have been bred with the one purpose in view of turning all their food into milk and wasting as little as possible in building up the body, are more or less weak-chested and apt to suffer from tuberculosis. Unless this disease is so far advanced as to affect the general health of the cow, or it has spread to the milk organs, the udder and the teats, it is not so dangerous as has heretofore been supposed. It is now held by the great majority of physicians that