Milk, cheese, and butter : a practical handbook on their properties and the processes of their production, including a chapter on cream and the methods of its separation from milk / by John Oliver.

  • Oliver, John (Writer on dairy products)
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Milk, cheese, and butter : a practical handbook on their properties and the processes of their production, including a chapter on cream and the methods of its separation from milk / by John Oliver. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    Ijeen allowed to ferment, and foul air and water, are a’l liable to produce mischief. The germs from all such sources are liable to be taken into the cow’s system in eating and breathing, and to interfere with her health ; though only in disease are microbes be- lieved to find their way into milk by w^y of the blood. There is, however, nothing to hinder the products of fermentation so reaching the milk, and creating conditions unfavourable to the dairyeds aims. There is no more reason to doubt of the passage of such, than of the flavours of turnip or wild-garlic. Milk from cows fed on brewers’ grains has been found to contain free acid, and could not be digested by children. The fermentative products of decayed roots eaten by cows have been known to produce diarrhoea in their calves. Such milk, if brought into the dairy, could not fail to produce inferior goods. A more direct infection of milk may be by the germs being taken up in the field or byre, and carried by the cow’s body, or by the air, into the pail, and here again experience confirms reason. Fermented foods and foul bedding, especially of bad hay,—“only fit to put under the cows,” as the thoughtless would say,—can do more harm than the cleverest dairyer can cure. In the light of these facts, the gravity of the objections to the use of such, and to dirty udders and wet-handed milking, is increased tenfold. One great source of contamination is the land pond,—in dry weather a mere puddle of foul water and mud, into which the cows go to cool themselves, splashing their bodies with the festering filth. We have directly traced some of the worst cases of bad milk we ever encountered to this cause. Even the cleansing of the cow’s udder, if not done with clean water and cloths, may fail to prevent the harm possible from such a source. Even teat plugs and milking tubes may contaminate our raw material if not cleansed and sterilised after using. The dairy may become infected, and we have known cases of complete failure ; the dairyers, unconscious of the true cause, chang- ing methods and making wild attempts to cure matters ; the cheese meanwhile continuing to rot and stink. The only cure in such cases is to cleanse the dairy and all its contents, while cutting off permanently the chance of recurrence by whitewashings the walls and ceiling with materials to which a disinfectant, as nearly inodorous as possible, has been added. Coloration.—Microbes producing coloration may now be men- tioned. Several of these have been identified and tested by experiment. The Micrococcus prodigiosus produces redness with acid, and casein coagulation. The Bacillus pyocancus causes a greenish yellow; Bacillus xanihogenus, an orange; and Vibrio