Page:The story of milk.djvu/70

 *washing machines, conveyors, etc., are wonders of ingenuity, and one needs only to see one of these modern plants to understand that in a large city milk can only be handled to advantage in expensive establishments.

Skim Milk is one of the cheapest of foods and under proper regulations its sale should not be prohibited. The reason why in times past skim milk has been discredited and excluded from sale was that, as produced by the old methods of raising the cream, before the advent of the separator, it was always more or less old and sour before it was available and certainly before it could be distributed to consumers. Under such conditions it was hardly ever fit for human food. But when produced by the separator and pasteurized and cooled immediately after—within a few hours after milking, which is entirely feasible—it is an excellent and nutritious food for adults and even for children over two years of age. Ripened with a pure culture of lactic acid bacteria, it makes a healthful, refreshing drink, like buttermilk. Only when it is allowed to sour without proper care or control does skim milk, as whole milk does, become unfit for food or drink. On a cold winter morning when men are going to work (or perhaps are looking for work which they cannot find), and children are on their way to school, often underfed, a street-corner wagon or stand where boiling hot, fresh, sweet skim milk might be distributed at a cent or two a glass would be a blessing in any city.

CREAM

When new milk is left at rest the cream will rise to the top and after 12 to 24 hours a cream-line can be seen in the bottle. This cream-line is sharper