38 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Let IIS see. In what does the nutritive quality of milk con- 

 sist ? Is it in the butter, or oily particles, or in the caseine or 

 cheesy elements ? Manifestly in the latter. What is caseine ? 

 It is a nitrogenous substance, very nearly analogous in composi- 

 tion to gluten, albumen and fibrine. It is also very nearly 

 identical in composition with flesh. From twenty-nine to thirty 

 per cent, of the ingredients of pease, beans, and other highly 

 nitrogenous seeds of leguminous plants, consist of caseine. It 

 is, in fact, one of the most important elements of nutrition. 



It is well known that cheese is an exceedingly nutritive 

 substance, more nutritive, a good deal, than even butchers' 

 meat, and this nutritive quality is due to the caseine chiefly, the 

 butter or oily constituents adding flavor and delicacy, what we 

 call richness, to the taste. Now cheese is made from the caseine 

 in milk. 



That the nutritive quality of milk is to be found chiefly in 

 the caseine, is susceptible of an almost unlimited amount of 

 proof, but I do not suppose it will be disputed, and therefore I 

 will take it for granted. 



In which breed do we find the milk richest in caseine, the 

 Ayrshire or the Jersey ? Unquestionably in the former. Take 

 the milk of both and set it in separate pans, in favorable circum- 

 stances for the cream to rise. After a sufficient length of time, 

 say twelve or eighteen hours, skim the two specimens, and 

 observe the difference in the skimmed milk. One is still white, 

 the color being due to the caseous matter wjiich surrounds the 

 butter particles ; the other is as blue as the sky. There can be 

 no question as to which would make the better skim-milk cheese. 

 One appears to be all water ; the other is still rich in cheesy and 

 butter particles. 



This appearance of the skimmed milk of the Jersey cow is 

 familiar to every one who has handled it, and I take it there 

 will be no dispute as to the difference between it and the 

 skimmed milk of other cows. But if any further corroboration 

 is wanted of the statement that the breed of cows exercises an 

 important influence on the milking capabilities of the animal, I 

 may mention the fact that Mr. Thomas Scott, of Scotland, had 

 an estate under his management where " there were two farms 

 in hand, which were stocked with a breed of Ayrshire cows 

 devoted to cheese-making. A herd of forty-five Jersey cows. 



