TJic Cotint7-y Gciitlcniaiis Magazine 



315 



^(ic ^airji anti f oulttD-^arii. 



IMPURE MILK ; HOW CAUSED AND ITS INJURIOUS EFFECTS. 



R LIVESEY, of The Brick, Poulton-le- 

 Fyloe, sends the following communica- 

 tion to the Chester Chronicle. Some account 

 of Mr Willard's observations has appeared in 

 the Magazine on previous occasions, but a 

 good story cannot be too often told. 



Few countries have made such rapid pro- 

 gress in improving the quality of their cheese 

 during the last twenty years as the Scotch. 

 It was a happy decision to adopt the Cheddar 

 method ; indeed, that mode is now getting 

 introduced in Cheshire and Shropshire, and 

 other counties — a proof of its superiority. 

 I do hear in certain quarters that some of the 

 Scotch Cheddars do not keep their flavour 

 pure and true for such a lengthened period as 

 they formerly did. This ought not to exist, 

 and where it exists a cure should be sought : 

 it is the one great drawback with American 

 cheese ; but with them, their great aim is to 

 force the cheese into the market for con- 

 sumption at the earliest possible moment. 

 Another remark I hear is, that while some 

 Scotch makers have reached a standard of 

 excellence not before attained, the market is 

 always overstocked with a quality best des- 

 cribed as " neither good nor bad" I am only 

 an occasional visitor, and just report what I 

 hear, not in a fault-finding spirit, but to 

 stimulate improvement. I do know that the 

 majority of the Scotch cheese makers are 

 anxious to improve and willing to learn. And 

 knowing this, on reading a paper — published 

 in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural 

 Society of England, by X. A. Willard, of 

 Herkimer, New York — I have ventured to 

 make some extracts which may possibly be of 

 use to your readers. I know there are some 

 places where they will be useful, and pre- 

 suming they may be so in Cheshire, I send 



them to you. Mr Willard is a writer of 

 celebrity in connexion with cheese-making 

 and other agricultural matters, and the paper 

 I am extracting from is a long and very in- 

 teresting account of the operations in the 

 American milk-condensing factories, especially 

 the most celebrated one — that of Mr Borden, 

 at Brewster, New York, where about 10,000 

 quarts of milk are condensed daily. At some 

 future time it is just possible the Scotch may 

 turn their attention to the milk-condensing 

 manufacture. There is a factory for that pur- 

 pose at Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire; also, 

 one at the Mallow, Ireland, where I notice 

 the proprietor, Mr Newnham, is testing the 

 question as to whether cheese can be suc- 

 cessfully made in Ireland, which has of late 

 years been so largely supplied from Scotland. 

 But I must pass over the particulars of the 

 milk-condensing processes and come at once 

 to the purpose of this communication, which is 

 to give a clue to the cause of the great 

 difficulty which occurs sometimes in dealing 

 with milk in making cheese. 



Mr Willard observes : "In Mr Borden's 

 early experiments, and indeed up to within 

 a few years past, the nature and cause of a 

 pecuharly bad behaviour of milk from time 

 to time were imperfectly understood. Under 

 certain circumstances and conditions the 

 milk could be readily handled, and gave no 

 trouble in its manipulation. When in this 

 state, comparatively inexperienced operators 

 — men who simply followed a set of rules, with 

 little or no knowledge of principles — were 

 enabled to turn out a good product, whether 

 it was condensed milk, or butter, or cheese. 

 Sometimes these conditions would continue 

 for days, for weeks, and for months." Then 

 we are told there would be a sudden and 



