148 AGRICULTURE. 



a fresh, sweet condition, whereas by the "cream-setting" 

 process it may be more or less soured or ripened. 



The richness of milk in cream varies greatly with the different 

 breeds, the different animals of the same breed, the period of 

 milking, and the portion of the milk taken. The strippings or 

 last portions of the milk are richer in cream than the tore-milk 

 or first portion milked, as the water comes away from the 

 udder in larger portions at first, and the fat appears to be set 

 free in the udder by the process of milking. Ordinarily cream 

 will contain from 55 to 65 per cent, of water, 25 to 40 per 

 cent, of fat, and some sugar and casein. If the milk sours 

 during creaming, so as to cause the casein to curdle, more 

 casein will be carried along with the fat. r l herefore, the milk 

 should be kept cool in creaming by the setting process. In 

 creaming milk, the purpose should be to remove the butter-fat 

 as thoroughly as possible, in as sweet a condition as possible, 

 and with as little water as possible. 



SKIM-MILK. This is the milk that has been skimmed of its 

 cream, or from which the fat has been removed by the separ- 

 ator. If we could take all of the fat, and only the fat, we 

 would still have left in the skim-milk the water, casein and 

 albumen, sugar, and ash. The skim-milk would contain a 

 large amount of very important food compounds, viz.: casein 

 and albumen, which can make muscle and flesh, or form fat, 

 or be burned up to produce heat ; sugar, which can be used 

 for producing heat ; and ash of the best kind for making bone. 

 Thus we see that skim-milk is a most important food, only the 

 fat is lacking to make it a perfect food for young animals. We 

 can replace this fat that has been removed in the cream by 

 mixing with it a small quantity of some oily food, such as a 

 little boiled linseed. If, then, we take away the milk from the 

 young calf for making butter, we can give it back to it by 

 adding linseed or some rich meal to the warm skim-milk, and 

 thus imitate the natural cow's milk. When the cream is 



