INJURY to MILK from COWS INHALING BAD ODOURS.

Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1644, 18 January 1883, Page 3

INJURY to MILK from COWS INHALING BAD ODOURS.

Thk injury to milk from cows inhaling bad odoms is not well understood. Among the new class of questions now claiming the attention of intelligent dairymen and cheese manufacturers is the one J have mentioned, viz., the influence upon milk resulting from cows breathing bad odours while at pasture. That milk is often tainted in this way has long been suspected by observant cheese manufacturers, though it was difficult to trace. oiit,\the cause and establish the principle. This question was recently brought forward by' a Mr Foster, a cheese manufacturer, before the American Dairymen's Association, and gave undoubted evidence that bad milk could come from such a source. He was having considerable trouble with the milk at his factory, and finally traced it to his own dairy, where the greatest care was taken in milking, in the cleanliness of milk vessels, and everything pertaining to the dairy. This fact led mm to. investigate the matter thoroughly, to examine the water and feed with which the cows were supplied, together, with the health and treatment of the stock, in the hope of discovering the cause. Find* ing nothing at fault in these particulars, and the trouble still continuing, t Jje'conclusion forced itself upon him that ,the cause must come from the cows inhaling bad odours. In a paddock adjoining one part of his pasture, a neighbour had left exposed a dead horse, which in its r position carried a bad odour over * that part of the pasture. Here tjiej cow.s in feeding inhaled a sufficient,'quantity of the offending gases to taint the milk as 1 lie conduced; for on calculating the time . it was found tljat the trouble With the milk dated at about the period ;the horse • ■ waS'lefb so exposed.'' 'Arguing from these premises he held the putrifyin'g carcass re- ] 'moved and buried,- when the rouble in 1 "-tlie militc immediately" disappes red.—Mr L. B. Arnold, ti Very &bs"e'l>bi3e,rver, and of much'e^berience^in' handing nnlk, 'gives'a'siwiilartt.ccdunt^df taunted milk ; caused i by • epwg > toeathifag4j^p6llUted.by finV In imp am'itofamu, U)'}n'ysfi \ premises, •■ ■ ,The^^n]feitfee i/foundi

in the general care,, of utensils, to cause tainted milk. But/on examining the pastures they did find the air polluted by, carrion, upon the removal of which, as in the other case, the taint in the milk at once disappeared." /J I could enumerate other canes of similar character, and the evidence warrants, the conclusion that' milk can be tainted in hot weather by cows inhaling a polluted atmosphere like that I have named. ' If the facts are worthy of credit and the conclusion is correctly drawn up, it opens up a very important question for dairymen in the production of milk. Hoiiace Walpole. Te Awamutu, Jan. 16th, 1883.