ON THE MILK OF THE COW. 
331 
Water,. 29-37 
Dry, . 10-72 
Casein,. * . 4-40 
Butter,... 4’70 
Sugar,. 4-72 
The casein obtained by acid 4-08. The butter by churning, 304-55 grains to one pound of 
milk. What is worthy of remark is the uniform composition of the milk, in butter, sugar and 
cheese. The Durham, it is evident, is a good dairy cow ; though less rich in butter and cheese, 
yet the value is made up in the quantity of milk per day which this breed usually furnishes. 
The next variety which I shall notice is the Ayrshire. The milk was furnished by Mr. 
Prentice, from an excellent animal, which may be regarded as a perfect representative of this 
breed. The milk was furnished the first of February : its specfic gravity was 1032-90. 
The composition was as follows : 
Water,. 85-94 
Dry, . 14*06 
Casein,. 4*65 
Butter,.. 5-42 
Sugar,. . 3- 98 
One thousand grains gave 7 "24 of ash. The cream was thick and yellow, and the butter 
amounted, by churning, to 516 grains to the pound of milk. At the temperature of 56° Fah. 
the butter came in eight minutes. The cream required diluting with the skimmed, in order to 
agitate it properly. The time occupied in churning the milk of the Kirtland cows was thirty 
minutes, and the butter was white and granular. It seems to follow, from all the analyses of 
the milk which I have made, that where the milk contains a large quantity of butter, that it is 
of an excellent quality. It would be rather an anomaly for a cow to give milk rich in butter, 
and that butter white, granular, and intermixed with casein, which are the characteristics of 
poor butter. I have not heard remarks to this effect, and may labor under an error, but the 
numerous opportunities which I have had for observation bear out the justness of the foregoing 
remark. In cheese making, the great object will be to secure cows which give the largest 
quantity of milk, for we may expect to obtain thereby the most casein, with sufficient butter to 
impart richness to the cheese. A cow of the Ayrshire breed would be less profitable for cheese 
making than the Durham, though her milk is richer. 
While engaged with these analyses I failed in obtaining the milk of the Devonshire and 
some other varieties, and hence I have been unable to institute comparisons as to the qualities 
of the milk. I subjoin only one more, the milk of the Alderney or Jersey cow, which was 
furnished me by Mr. J. A. Taintor, of Hartford, Connecticut. To set forth the value of the 
milk of this breed, I propose first to give the analysis of the Ayrshire’s milk, from Prof. 
Thompson’s work on the relative value of food for the production of butter, and published by 
order of the British government. These analyses were made however in warm weather, or 
