California Horticulturist and Live Stock Journal, 



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Something About Milk. 



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nf ijJHE Massachusetts Flcnighman has been 

 a||;L giving a series of articles on milk, from 

 Ji//v which we extract some curious items of 

 %KJ information: 



Milk is produced by the females of all that 

 class of animals known to naturalists as the 

 mainmalia, and was evidently designed by 

 Nature as the uoiirishment of the young of 

 those animals. As such it has been used by 

 man from the earliest periods of the human 

 race. The milk of the camel is still used in 

 Africa and in some parts of Asia; that of 

 mares in Tartary and Siberia, and that of 

 goats in Italy and Spain, while that of the 

 cow is most universally used and most widely 

 esteemed. 



Milk is a compound, an opaque fluid, gen- 

 erally white, of a sweet and agreeable taste, 

 and made up of an oily or fatty sulistance 

 known as butter which gives it its richness, 

 of a caseous or mucilaginous substance which 

 gives it its strength and from which cheese is 

 obtained, and of a serous or watery substance 

 which makes it refreshing as a beverage, with 

 a small per cent, of sugar of milk to which 

 it owes its sweetness. 



In the milk of the cow, which we are now 

 to consider, the fatty substance ranges from 

 two and a half to seven per cent. th« cheesy 

 matter from three to ten per cent, and the 

 watery parts from eighty to nineiy 'ler cent. 

 Although to the naked eye milk appears to 

 be one homogeneous mass, yet, when viewed 

 under the microscope, myriads of little glob- 

 ules of various sizes and forms, but mostly 

 round or ovoid, seem to swim suspended in 

 the watery substance, and on a more minute 

 examinatfon it will be found that these are 

 the oily particles encased or surrouned by a 

 cheesy film, and which by their comparative 

 lightness are soon to rise to the surface and 

 form theyeUowish, semi-liquid coating known 

 as cream. 



These particles are so minute that they 

 filter throTigh the finest paper, and they are 

 so generally ditt'nsed through the mass of milk 

 as it is drawn from the cow, that they do not 

 interfere with its ready assimilation with 

 water or other unfermeuted liquids, .although 

 its weight is four per cent, more than that of 

 water, and notwithstanding the diJi'ereuce in 

 sijeeific gravity. 



Cold condenses milk, while heat liquefies 

 it. The elements of which it is composed, 

 varying as they do in character and specific 

 gravity, rapidly change their relative positions 

 when the milk is at rest. The oily or but- 

 tery i)articles rise to the surface, while the 

 serous or watery matter, on account of its 

 greater weight soon falls to the bottom. 



The oily particles of milk in rising bring up 

 along with them a large proportion of the 

 cheesy matter adhering to them mechanically, 

 and some of the watery partieh^s by which 

 they are surrounded. If these particles rose 

 up jiure and free from the admixture of the 

 other substances they would appear in the 

 form of pure biAter, and one of the priuci])al 

 objects of churning is to free or disengage the 

 oily substance from the other elements, which 

 in rising it has brought up with it. 



The caseous matter, under the influence of 

 liigh temperature, has a tendency to collect 

 and form a body l)y itself, known as curd, and 

 in forming this partial solidification it be- 

 couics separated from the whey, or serous 

 matter, so that after a lapse of time, the 

 tliree principal constituents of milk will ap- 

 pear in forms distinct and peculiar to them- 

 BiUvos, and we then have the cream or butter, 

 the curd or cheese, and the liquid whey as 

 separate elements. This separation some- 

 times takes place with gi'eat rapidity, especi- 

 ally under the influence of great heat or sud- 

 den changes of the atmosphere, and not 



unfrequently before the butter particles have 

 had time to rise to the surface. 



The cheesy matter previous to coagulation 

 is easily soluble in water, but after a com- 

 plete coagulation has taken place it becomes 

 insoluble. 



The serum or whey is not left perfectly pixre 

 and free from mixture, but still holds in sus- 

 pe)ision some cheesy and butter particles 

 which can be separated by ebullition. It also 

 holds in suspension some alkaline elements, 

 in a basis of potassa, and some sugar of milk 

 amounting usuallj' to about three and a half 

 per cent of its weight. 



The separation of the three chief elements 

 of milk is much more readily effected in that 

 of the cow than in that of other animals, and 

 the apjiarent affinity which they have when 

 first drawn from the udder is only instantane- 

 ous, since the separation commences even be- 

 fore milk has left the udder, and is continued 

 with considerable rapidity as soon as it comes 

 to rest in a favorable position. 



When subjected to great heat, or when 

 brought to a boiling point, milk loses its finest 

 and most delicate properties and its flavor or 

 fragrance. 



The number of stomachs or powerful di- 

 gestive organs of the cow, and of the rumin- 

 ating animals generally, is wonderfully ad- 

 apted to promote the largest secretions of 

 every kind. 



The specific gi-avity of milk is greater than 

 that of water, that of the latter being one 

 thousand, and that of the former one thous- 

 and and thirty-one on an average, though it 

 varies greatly as it comes from different cows, 

 .and even at different times from the same cow. 

 A feeding of salt given to the cow will, in a 

 few hoi./s, cause the specific gravity of her 

 milk to vary from one to three per cent. 



Milk will ordinarily produce from two to fif- 

 teen per cent, of its own volume in cream, or, 

 on an average, not far from twelve and a half 

 per cent. Eight quarts of milk will, there- 

 fore make about one quart of cream. But the 

 milk of cows that are fed so as to produce the 

 richest milk and butter will often far exceed 

 this, sometimes giving oner twenty per cent, 

 of cream,^Bid in rare instances twenty-five or 

 twenty-six per cent. The product of milk in 

 cream is more regular than the product of 

 cream in butter. A veiy rich milk is lighter 

 than milk of a poorer quality, for the reason 

 that cream is lighter than skim-milk. 



Of the different constituents of milk, case- 

 ine is that which in its composition most re- 

 sembles animal matter, and hence the intrinsic 

 value of cheese as a nutritive article of food. 

 Hence, also, the nutritive qualities of skim- 

 med milk, or milk from which the cream only 

 has been removed, while the milk is still sweet. 

 The oily or fatty parts of milk furnish heat to 

 the animal system ; but this is easily supplied 

 by other substances. 



Managing Cows in Hoi,i.and. — From a con- 

 densed report of Dr. Staring, in the London 

 Field, on the Dairy Husbandry in HoUaud.we 

 make the following extract: 



In the dairying districts — mostly exposed 

 tracts of land without a tree — the usual plan 

 of protecting cows against the cold and wet is 

 to fasten round their bodies a thick tow cloth, 

 and occasionally a rough shedding is erected 

 to serve them as shelter. On their return to 

 the stables they arc attached by the neck to 

 two stout posts, having movable rings which 

 slide up and down as the animal changes its 

 position. The usual arrangement is for the 

 cows to stand fa(!C to face in two rows. Be- 

 tween the latter runs a feeihug passage, and 

 liehind the cattle there is a channel and 

 plenty of room to remove the droppings. 

 Frnm time to time pea, rye, barley anil oat 

 straw are substituti>d for a change, and either 

 rape or linseed cake — about a cake a head — 

 is ilissolved in the water thoy drink. Some 

 farmers, however, prefer to give the cake in 

 its dry stale, thinking it goes f\uth<!r in that 

 way, and is more wholesome. Turnips are 



not much grown or used as cattle food in the 

 dairying districts; they are occasionally given, 

 however, as a supplementaiy article of diet, 

 also beets, carrots, white and red clover, and 

 spurry;andin the vicinity of towns there- 

 fuse of breweries and distilleries is a common 

 feeding material. 



The calves are never allowed to suck, and 

 receive for the first four weeks piu-e milk, 

 after that sour milk, buttermilk, or whey, 

 according to circumstances. At the end of 

 four months the same nourishment is given 

 them as to the full-gaown cattle; but they 

 often get sour milk, etc., besides. In those 

 localities, such as the neighborhood of Ny- 

 kerk and Nymegen, in Guelderland and Veg- 

 hel, and Breda, in North Brabant, where the 

 fattening of calves is largely and successfully 

 carried on, the usual plan is to put them di- 

 rectly after birth into small pens or boxes, 

 which are just large enough for them to stand 

 up and lie down in, and kept dark. Tue 

 calves get twice a day as much fresh drawn 

 milk as they can consume, and for the first 

 week each animal is fed exclusively on its 

 own mother's milk. Such importance do 

 some farmers attack to the calves consuming 

 nothing but milk, that they muzzle the creat- 

 ures in order that they may not chew and 

 swidlow any of the litter. A calf fattened in 

 the above way will weigh in ten to twelve 

 weeks, fat and lean together, 150 to 200 

 pounds. 



.«-*-» 



GrvE Plentt op Food to Cows. — It is pro- 

 bably true that fifty per cent, of the profit 

 which might be realized from the dairy stock 

 of this country, is annually lost to their 

 owners, from want of the necessary quantity 

 and the proper quality of food which should 

 be given them. L. F. Allen gives experiments 

 by Dr. Ehode-Eldena, of the Royal Academy 

 of Agiiculture, in Prussia, of the compara- 

 tive yield of milk from cows, by pasturing 

 and stable feeding, or soiling, through seven 

 years of each system. The average per cow 

 for the whole seven years in pasturing was, 

 1,583 quarts, while the average per cow for 

 the seven years of stabling or soiling, was 

 3,4-12 quarts. From this result it is seen that 

 the cow is capable of producing one hundred 

 per cent, more than she usually does, provid- 

 ed she is kept in the most comfortable man- 

 mer, and fed with the gi-eatest milk-produciutj 

 substances. She may produce but half of 

 the .above quantities if not properly housed 

 in the Winter, and scantily fed during the 

 whole year. In either case, the original cost 

 or value of the cow is the same; the care is 

 about the same, while all the loss in her pro- 

 duction is caused by a lack in quantity and 

 quality of food, coupled with a lack of com- 

 fort during the inclement seasons of the year. 



A FAEMEKs' miUc company, with $200,000 

 for disposing of the farmers' milk in New 

 York without the aid of middlemen, has 

 started Inisiuess in Connecticut. This is one 

 of the most important enterprises to the far- 

 mers of the Hoiisatonic, Shepang and Nauga- 

 tuck valleys that has been undertaken. If it 

 siicceeds as its projectors anticipate, the milk 

 distributing business in New York city, it is 

 supposed, will go into the hands of an honest 

 conqiauy, controlled by the fia-mers them- 

 ers themselves. Thus the ball is roUiug. 



fuKiiE are now in the State of New York 

 more than 500 cheese factories, using tho 

 milk of over 200,000 cows. 



Frantjtno a Hor.sE.— The only one of Col. 

 Dodd's old associates who is living, is Mr. 

 Charles Forrester, the present superintendent 

 of the newspaper department in the rostotfice. 

 He remembers when Col. Keeside, the great 

 mail contractor of former days, had to bring 

 a horse behind his mail coach from Washing- 

 ton to New .Jersey as mail matter. The ani- 

 mal was forwarded by a member »f Congress, 

 under tho franking privilege. — A^cio I'oric 

 iS'uii. 



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