4. Brush the udder carefully with a moist cloth before you begin to milk. Cleanliness in handling makes the milk keep longer. 5. Always milk in buckets or cups that have been scalded since the last using. The hot water kills the bacteria that collect in the dents or cracks of the utensil. 6. Never let the milk pail remain in the stable. Milk rapidly absorbs impurities. These spoil the flavor and cause the milk to sour. 7. Never scold or strike the cow. She is a nervous animal, and rough usage checks the milk flow. [Illustration] [Illustration: THREE GENERATIONS OF HIGH-BRED COWS] SECTION LXI. MILK, CREAM, CHURNING, AND BUTTER =Milk.= Milk is, as you know, nature's first food for mammals. This is because milk is a model food--it contains water to slake thirst, ash to make bone, protein to make flesh and muscle, and fat and sugar to keep the body warm and to furnish energy. =The Different Kinds of Milk.= Whole, or unskimmed, milk, skimmed milk, and buttermilk are too familiar to need description. When a cow is just fresh, her milk is called _colostrum_. Colostrum is rich in the very food that the baby calf needs. After the calf is a few days old, colostrum changes to what is commonly known as milk. The following table shows the composition of each of the different forms of milk: ======================================================= | DIGESTIBLE MATTER IN 100 POUNDS |---------------------------------- COMPOSITION OF MILK | Dry |Protein|Carbohydrates| Fat |matter| | | ------------------------------------------------------- Colostrum | 25.4 | 17.6 | 2.7 | 3.6 Milk (unskimmed) | 12.8 | 3.6 | 4.9 | 3.7 Skimmed milk | 9.4 | 2.9 | 5.2 | 1.3 Buttermilk | 9.9 | 3.9 | 4.0 | 1.1 ======================================================= A noticeable fact in this table is that skimmed milk differs from unskimmed mainly in the withdrawal of the fat. Hence, if calves are fed on skimmed milk, they should have in addition some food like corn meal to take the place of the fat withdrawn. A calf cannot thrive on skimmed milk alone. The amount of nourishing fat that a calf gets out of enough milk to make a pound of butter can be bought, in the form of linseed or corn meal, for a very small amount, while the butter-fat costs, for table use, a much larger sum. Of course, then, it is not economical to allow calves to use unskimmed milk. Some people undervalue skimmed milk; with the addition of some fatty food it makes an excellent ration for calves, pigs, and fowls.