But unless the air is thus full of dust this source of bacteria is not very great, and compared with the bacteria from the other sources the air bacteria are unimportant. The milk thus gets filled with bacteria, and since it furnishes an excellent food these bacteria begin at once to grow. The milk when drawn is warm and at a temperature which especially stimulates bacterial growth. They multiply with great rapidity, and in the course of a few hours increase perhaps a thousandfold. The numbers which may be found after twenty-four hours are sometimes inconceivable; market milk may contain as many as five hundred millions per cubic inch; and while this is a decidedly extreme number, milk that is a day old will almost always contain many millions in each cubic inch, the number depending upon the age of the milk and its temperature. During this growth the bacteria have, of course, not been without their effect. Recognising as we do that bacteria are agents for chemical change, we are prepared to see the milk undergoing some modifications during this rapid multiplication of bacteria. The changes which these bacteria produce in the milk and its products are numerous, and decidedly affect its value. They are both advantageous and disadvantageous to the dairyman. They are nuisances so far as concerns the milk producer, but allies of the butter and cheese maker. THE EFFECT OF BACTERIA ON MILK. The first and most universal change effected in milk is its SOURING. So universal is this phenomenon that it is generally regarded as an inevitable change which can not be avoided, and, as already pointed out, has in the past been regarded as a normal property of milk. To-day, however, the phenomenon is well understood. It is due to the action of certain of the milk bacteria upon the milk sugar which converts it into lactic acid, and this acid gives the sour taste and curdles the milk. After this acid is produced in small quantity its presence proves deleterious to the growth of the bacteria, and further bacterial growth is checked. After souring, therefore, the milk for some time does not ordinarily undergo any further changes.