184 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Taints in Mill-. 



Since the establishment of butter and cheese factories in this country the 

 susceptibility of milk to taints drawn from rank food and stagnant, miasmatic 

 water consumed by dairy stock, has been receiving increased attention. We 

 often hear this taint or animal odor confounded with animal heat. Now we 

 know that animal heat is necessary to animal existence. A little reflection will 

 teach almost any one that an offensive odor in milk is not necessary to its secre- 

 tion nor to the existence of animal life. Hence animal heat and animal odor 

 are not at all synonymous. Again, this odor, or taint is increased by bad food, 

 ^vater, air and general mismanagement, and often becomes unendurable to per- 

 sons of sensitive olfactory nerves. On the other hand, taint is decreased in 

 just the proportion that cows are furnished good food, pure water and pure air. 



But at all times of the year there is an offensive odor exhaled from fresh 

 drawn milk, which when carried along into the jiroduct manufactured damages 

 its taste and keeping qualities, and, necessarily, its value. We will suppose a 

 ease in which milk fresh drawn exhales an offensive odor. Tiie usual process 

 is to strain it into pans and set for cream. The milk cools gradually and the 

 cream rises and forms an air-tight covering for the milk and its tainting odors. 

 Until the milk, cooling from 98°, or blood-heat, to 70°, reaches the latter point, 

 the whole tendency of the taint is evaporative, and rising, impregnates the 

 cream with its unwholesome taste and smell. Finally the cream is taken off, 

 taint and all, and churned. The lady of the house, after all her care and labor, 

 is repaid with a batch of butter that is unfit to eat. Now I venture the asser- 

 tion that the great bulk of butter manufactured in Eaton county is made from 

 milk more or less tainted, and handled in the manner described. And this is 

 the reason, the primary cause of our butter bringing but a shilling when the 

 best butter makers in other localities are receiving from 22 to 28 cents. 



This animal odor, this taint — what does it consist of, or what is it? Prof. 

 Arnold and others who have given a great deal of time to the W'ork of giving a 

 practical answer to this question, inform ns that it consists of an oil that is very 

 volatile in its nature. In other words, there is a volatile oil in milk that takes 

 on all the offensive odors of the food, water or air furnished the cow. 



But what can we do to neutralize tlie effects of this tainting, volatile oil? 

 Prof. Arnold says that in order to obtain even fair results, the milk should be 

 thoroughly aired and cooled as soon as possible after it is drawn from the cow. 

 T. i). Curtis, of New York, a practical dairyman and writer upon dairy topics, 

 says that air is the only purifier of milk, and that airing is of full as much im- 

 portance as cooling — and that this is the great question presented to the butter 

 and cheese makers of the United States. 



It is true that cooling milk to 70° or less as soon as possible after it is drawn 

 neutralizes the tainting element to a great degree, and is an improvement upon 

 the practice of setting for cream while warm from the cow and depending upon 

 the atmosphere for a cooling power. Very many dairymen strain their milk 

 into tin vessels surrounded with cold well water, anil di)) and jiour it until it is 

 cooled to the right temperature, before setting for cream. These men obtain 

 the liighest prices for their products, and have no trouble in securing ready 

 sales. 



There is another process recommended by Prof. Arnold, whicli is beyond the 

 reach of the ordinary butter-makers of Michigan. He says that this oil, or taint 

 is somewhat volatile at 65° of heat, and that by heating the milk to 150° as 

 soon as possible after it is drawn, causes this volatile oil to go off with a rush. 



