In summarizing-, then, it is seen that whole milk, skim-milk, and 

 buttermilk are all muscle and tissue-building- foods, though not as much 

 so as meats. They are all useful as sources of energy, and it is only on 

 account of the large proportion of water that skim-milk cannot be used 

 much more than it is. But let us remember that both whole milk and 

 skim-milk are cheap foods, and should be used more, especially for small 

 children and growing boys and girls. 



Milk is classed among the very digestible foods, although there are 

 some to whom it is very indigestible, but this is a peculiarity of that in- 

 dividual stomach. When it is taken into the stomach it is quickly curdled 

 by the acid of the digestive juices, and in this regard it should be re- 

 membered that to be digestible, milk should be sipped or taken slowly, 

 so that it may enter the stomach and curdle in a soft, flocculent mass 

 instead of in hard lumps, as would be the case if taken too quickly. This 

 is one reason why it is well to use milk with other foods, and not take it 

 in large quantities alone. Limewater is frequently used in milk to pre- 

 vent too rapid coagulation, in cases of weak digestion. Milk when 

 boiled is rendered indigestible because the proteid or muscle and tissue- 

 buliding part is hardened, and thus made difficult for the stomach to 

 work upon. This shows us that milk when cooked should never be 

 boiled if possible to prevent it. Again, in heating milk it is always well 

 to cover it. If left without a cover a scum forms on the top and it has 

 to be removed to make the milk palatable, and thereby we lose the most 

 valuable part of it, the protein. 



Milk is a product which we are handling- daily, and using continu- 

 ously, and it is one of the most encouraging signs of progression in our 

 women's work to see this study being given prominence. To further 

 increase our knowledge of the proper care and handling of milk, and its 

 use as a food, is to materially assist us to higher planes of living. 



MILK— ITS PRODUCTION. 



(An Address by Prof. H. H. Dean, before Ontario Women's Institute 

 Convention, held at Guelph, December, 1906.) 



The subject assigned to me is "Milk," more particularly the "Pro- 

 duction of Milk." 



Atwood, an American authority, says that one quart of milk has 

 about as much nutritive value as a pound of beef. Now, we can pur- 

 chase in milk nutritive material at about one-third the cost that you can 

 get it in beef. I would like you to bear in mind that milk is one of the 

 cheapest of the nutritive foods which we may purchase, and has this 

 great advantage over beef, that it is almost entirely, if not entirely, di- 

 gested. Man, in the process of the study of this question, looked for 

 some animal which could give him this nutritive material at the smallest 

 cost, and after experimenting with all the lower animals, he came to the 

 conclusion that the cow was the one which would produce milk in the 

 greatest quantity and at the lowest cost. Among the lower animals, the 



