4l6 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



that each had an average of four hundred cowp, each yielding four thousand 

 pounds of milk, enough for about four hundred pounds of cheese, the yield 

 of all would be forty-eight million!* of pound.«, and the usual per-ceutage of sugar 

 found in milk would amount to upwards of two million pounds, or say ten 

 tliousand barrels. In a factory employing the milk of one thousand cows, sup- 

 posing them to yield twenty pounds each, and the milk to yield four per cent, of 

 milk sugar, the daily product would be eight hundred pounds. To separate the 

 albumen from the whey it would only be necessary to raise its temperature to near 

 the boiling point, when the albumen, together with about all the butter remaining 

 in it, would separate and leave the liquid clear, and this, when evaporated to 

 the proper point, would yield prismatic cr)'stals of lactose. Which the better 

 method of evaporating the liquid might be, so as not to convert it into lactic 

 acid, whether with an apparatus similar to that used for the juice of sorghum, 

 or by the use of the vacuum pan, such as sugar refiners use, or by other modes, 

 is a matter to be tested by trial. The albumen and curd first separated would 

 be very desirable food for swine, at least, and might likely enough be used for 

 other purposes. 



Lactose, or milk sugar, is less sweet to the taste than cane sugar. Its prin- 

 cipal use at present is as a vehicle for homoeopathic remedies. It is less soluble 

 than cane sugar, requiring fire or six parts of cold water, but dissolving more 

 readily in boiling water. It is less susceptible of alcoholic fermentation, but 

 by boiling in dilute acid it may be converted into fennentable sugar. With 

 the presence of an albuminous ferment its solution rapidly passes into lactic 

 acid, as when whey sours spontaneously. Its chemical composition is C 12, 

 H. 12, 0. 12, and varies but slightly from cane sugar, which is C. 12, H. 1], 

 0. 11. 



What might be the market value of milk sugar, to what extent it may be 

 substituted for cane sugar, and what other uses it might serve, are at present 

 merely matters of speculation. It has been manufactured to some extent in 

 Switzerland, where it is an article of commerce. 



AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY. 



BV HON. M. L. DUNLAP, OK CHAMPAIGN, ILL. 



The increase of population, the deterioration of the soil by constant crop- 

 ping, and the demands for labor in other departments, have made a necessity 

 for improved modes of culture, and for the saving of manual labor. This can 

 only be met by improved machines and implements, by which the work can 

 be both better and more rapidly executed. 



Aside from these considerations, the farmer must be relieved from the old 

 drudgery of hard and continual muscular exertion, such as mowing by hand, 

 and cutting the grain with the sickle and cradle; otherwise his sons will betake 

 themselves to the mechanic arts, where steam does all the heavy work, such as 

 sawing, boring, turning, &c. The contrast between the labor of the field and 

 that of the shop, without a corresponding advance in the mechanic arts applied 

 to the former, would become so great that no laborers could be obtained with- 

 out greatly increased wages, and the agriculturist would soon find himself 

 among the parialis in the social scale. 



