FARM AND STATION.

Otago Witness, Issue 2157, 27 June 1895, Page 6

FARM AND STATION.

HEALTHY MIL£. The number of students attending the Dairy School clatscs at Edendale is a gratifying cvi" dence of the desire on the part of the farming community to perfect themselves in the knowledge and most approved methods of cheese and butter making. It cannot, therefore, bs j out of place to suggest to Mr MacEwan tho desirability during the seesion of impressing fixedly on the minds of the students the primary importance of the freedom of the milk operated on, whether at a factory or farm dairy, frcm all obnoxious or dangerous bacteria, and that this fundamental principle can only be assured by close observation of the health o^ tha milch cows, the quality of the food, and purity of the water supply, the cleanly handling of the milk, and above all thenen-exiftsnee of contagious or infectious disease among the attendants or persons they are much in contact with. As long ago as 1858 Dr M. Taylor first pointed out thst milk was the probable agent in the dissemination of typhoid fever, and the outbreak in 1870 at laliagton, a London 6ubarb, was traced by Dr Ballard to milk contaminated with impure water. In & pamphlet recently published in London by a Dr Welply, and which uas attracted much attention, the author draws attention to a source of danger which may not tend to the peace of mind of the sensitive on such subjeefcs. One form of co-operative dairying—the creamery— the author refers to particularly. He writes :—": — " A number of farmers send their milk to a creamery, and where the product of all the dairies is mixed together. The cream is removed, and the skim milk— or *t leaet lome of it— is taken back to the farms,

to bo used as the farmer see* fit, sometimes for his live stock, cometimes for himself anil family." Within the district iv which Dr , Welply practices is a creamery, which is served . by several farms round about, and in this circle typhoid fever broke oub. Various circum- : stancei caused the doctor to come to the cm-elusion-that tte epedpmic was not due in any way t3 impetfecb dtninag*, or to a tainted water supply, so ho looked elsewhere for the reason, with the result that ib was eveotiully traced— at lessb in tia opinion— to the crQamcry. He therefore lays pvticular atress upon the wholesale manner in wlich a creamery or factory may spraad disesso, and is perfectly warranted in his deductions. Suppose the niilk of 10 dairies is sent to a factory or a wholesale dealer and retailer. All the milk is pub toge'her, and therefore any milk coming from a f*roa on which there is disease may taint (he whole of that which comes from dairies whore no infection cxis'.s. Bat the evils may extend to the product? — buttsr and checsa. It has oftsn been pointed out thai; tho tubercle bacilluß io the milk of oows suffering from tuberculous udders m ; ght Blill retain its vitality and infective power even when the nvlk hus been converted into butter and cheese. Professor Bang, in Denmark, first proved this in connection with butter, andsiuce his observations several other investigators hnvo confirmed his conclasions. RewnUy it has been reported to the New York Bmrd of Health tint tho Klebs-Li.flkr (diphtheiit) bacillus ha 9 actually been cultivated from the cheese made from milk Btored on a dairy farm ! on which a C3BB or cases of diphtheria had occuned. Under such circumstances the diphtheria bicillus, if allowed to gain access in the cheese-making room, nvght fiad its way into the milk or cheeso at any part of the proc«sj, so that any treatment of the milk i salt' which might interfere with the_vibality of the bacillus would be of little or no avail. If tlis observation is CDrrtcfc — and there 19 no reason to doubt its accuracy — there is actual proof cf | what has been already suggest cj £tij suspected — viz , that pathogenic bacteria may frequently , flud a nidus and nutriment in most of the food stuffs nidc from mi'k. In the case referred to the New York Board of Health traced and on* li<c4tcl tho whole consignment of cheese from the affected farm. It is, perhaps, from the milk oE co^s sjffaring from tuberculosis ulders that the greatest dagger to health may bs apprehended, becauso ' the niicro-organisniß in the milk have great resistant properties. Professor J. I'orster, of , Amsterdam, an authority on the subject, finds that to make sure of killing the tubercle bacteria in milk by means of heat (Pasteurisation) it must be exposed in one of the following ways :— l3ldeg Fahr. for four hours, 110 leg Fahr. for one hour, 149deg F<ihr. for 15min, ! 158deg Fahr. for lOrnin, 17GJeg Fahr. for smin, 194deg Ffthr. for 2min, or Fabx. tor lmin. It is only in comparatively recent years that the widespread prevalence of this nnlady among dairy cattle in all countries has beeu ascertained and tho necessity for drastic measures for its suppression been recognised. In mo3t European countries means are adopted to prevent the consumption of tho meat of animals affected, and there is a stricb supervision over milch cattle. In the United Kingdom a Royal Commission waa appointed to make inquiry as to the prevalence of the disease and the bast means of preventing its spread. The existence of the malady was sufficiently indicated by records j taken during the year in which the slaughter* ing of cattle affected with pleuro pneuoionia was being carried out. By order of the Board of Agriculture in 1892 a record was kept of the number of cases of tabercule found ia each , herd slaughtered, and the resulb was that of i cows 223 for cent, were more or less tuberculous. Some years ago a commission appointed | ' by the Parliament of Victoria reported the ex- ' traordinary prevalence of the malady among tho t dairy herd jin that colony, and its ravages among , all classes of cattle in othar of the Australian colonies have-bean a frequent subject of com- ' tnenb. Its existeuce among the cattle stock ia I this colony has been ascertained beyond ques« fcion, but iv the absence of efficient inspection , of abattoirs and dairy herds it is impossible to gay to what extent it prevails. In his recent lecture on the various diseases affecting live ' itock, Mr Gilrutb, Government veterinary ex- 5 pert, stated that ho had found less tuberculosio >

among the cattle of the solony than he expected to find, but his off-htnd statement wai in no way reassuring, as he was prudently silent an to his opportunities of inspecting any considerable) number of beasts tlaughtotod at abattoirs, or his experiences in the ojlot.y of the application of the tuberculin tett to anima's suspected to ba suffering from the dtaeasa. Few competent veteriawy surgeons will pretend to make a correct diagnosis of the disetse in animals afoot unless with the ht-lp of the tuberculin te3t, and certainly its application among dairy herds would exclude the vie of milk at factories and farms, or by consumers generally, from cows aff cited by one of the most insidious diseases known. While ib ia desrable that 6tndeut« at a dairy school should be imtruoted in the bosb methods of cheese and butter making, the opportunity should nob be loit oE impressing upoa them the essential import tnce, as affdoting results, of the absolute cleanliness and heaUhi'uluess of the milk to be used in tha pricefseo. The regulations ia fore 3 in Denmark and Sweden, and which h&va been studiously made known to consumers in Great Britain, give an assaranro nob only as regards tho quality, but the perfect healthi'ulness ait well of the dairy produs's, and command foe them a preference accordingly. Tha many sources to which epidenves from milk and milk products have beou traced should therefore be regarded as an impoclani part of the teaching in every course of dairy instruction.