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42
Inasmuch as the growth of bacteria is largely dependent upon temperature,
milk should be at once cooled by passing through a refrigerator. If it
be put up in sterilized bottles, this can be done immediately, and the
cooling effected by placing the bottles in cold water. Where milk cannot be
properly refrigerated, then sterilisation should be resorted to.
To this, however, many objections have been raised, and at the present
time the system does not seem likely to become popular.
The milk when cooled should be kept so, and Railway Companies should
be compelled to provide special refrigerator vans for the purpose. In transit
all milk vessels should be securely locked, and every precaution taken
to prevent contamination. There is a general, but erroneous, impression
among farmers and dairymen that the locking of churns is objected to by the
Railway Companies.
Formerly this was the case, the reason given being the difficulty of checking
the quantity contained in the vessels.
In a leaflet (No. 110), issued by the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, it
is stated all the principal railway companies do not make any difference in the
charges when sealed cans are used, provided the tare weight of the vessels
is stamped upon the outside of them. The companies reserve the right to
open locked cans. This, however, is simply a protective clause which would
only be exercised where there was any reasonable doubt as to the accuracy of
the consignment.
Farmers do not seem to be aware of this concession, as practically none
avail themselves of it. Certainly milk is rarely consigned to the City in
locked churns. As it is obviously in the farmers' interests that there should
be no chance of their consignments being tampered with, they would do well
to adopt the use of locked churns.
The importance of such protection in transit need scarcely be insisted upon.
The recently adopted regulations of the Corporation for control of milkshops
require all milk vessels to be kept covered, and a moment's considera
tion of the possibility of pollution by dust and organic matter in a large City
(to say nothing of the dirty condition of many of the smaller shops, where
many other articles, both clean and unclean, are purveyed) will be sufficient
to show the necessity for such a rule.
In the household the same idea must be borne in mind ; dirt, ever a source
of potential danger, becomes an actual one where milk is concerned. Care in
providing clean vessels, well-ventilated places for storage, &c., will not only
minimise risk, but will tend to economy, as enabling the milk to keep good for
a much longer period.
Shortly, cleanliness, always necessary, is especially and absolutely so in the
case of milk.