CROPS IN MIDDLE GEORGIA. 
279 
food, and the caseous part, which increases its den¬ 
sity,being made preponderant by other kinds. And, 
on the other hand, although water, the ordinary 
substance with which milk is adulterated by the 
dealers in the French metropolis, would alone 
cause a great diminution of density, the dealers 
know very well how to prevent that effect, and 
thereby render the aerometer or lactometer useless. 
For this purpose, it is only necessary to dissolve in 
the milk a little sugar or sugar-candy, which is re¬ 
quired at all events, in order to correct the flat taste 
imparted to milk by diluting it with water. The 
result of M. Barruel’s inquiries on the adulteration 
of milk in Paris, was, that no positively noxious 
substance was, in any case, found in it; that a 
common practice was to remove a considerable 
portion of the cream, by allowing the milk to stand 
for a limited time, and then to dilute the remainder, 
or skimmed milk, with water, and to give it the 
apparent qualities of new T milk by one or other of 
the methods now to be mentioned. The opacity of 
the milk being much diminished by the water, so 
that it acquired a bluish appearance, it was at one 
time usual to correct this defect, by previously 
mixing wheat-flour with the water with which the 
milk was adulterated. But this deception was too 
obyious to the senses. Any person, even of indif¬ 
ferent delicacy of palate, could detect the altered 
taste of the milk.; and besides, after two hours’ 
rest, the flour precipitated to the bottom, and the; 
translucent blueness was restored again to the milk. 
To prevent this inconvenience, the dealers boiled 
the flour in the water before mixing it with the 
milk ; and, in this manner, an opaque mixture was 
obtained, which retained its opacity on standing. 
As even with this addition, the fabricated liquid 
had a flat taste, sugar or sugar-candy was dissolved 
in it, by which means the peculiar sweetness of the 
milk was nearly restored. This adulteration, how¬ 
ever, had become so easy of detection by means of 
iodine, which renders a mixture of boiled flour and 
water blue by its action on the fecula of the flour, 
that M. Barruel was in a belief, that the fraud now 
described had been but little practised in Paris. 
Driven from this species of adulteration, the deal¬ 
ers resorted to another mode, so ingenious, that M. 
Barruel conceived they could not have discovered 
it without the aid of some scientific person. The 
method is so simple and cheap, that for one 
franc (18! cents) the opacity and color of milk may 
be imparted to fifteen quarts of water, and so far 
secret that no disagreeable taste can be detected. 
This is nothing more than the employment of an 
emulsion of almonds, for which some dealers, 
more greedy and less cautious than the rest, substi¬ 
tuted hemp-seed, w r hich, however, is liable to im¬ 
part an acrid taste. By either of these means milk 
may be diluted to an indefinite extent; and the only 
corrective required is a little sugar or sugar-candy, 
to remove the flat taste. A peculiar advantage 
possessed by the latter mode of adulteration over 
every other, is, that the vegetable animal matter, or 
vegetable albumen of the emulsion, by which the 
oil of almonds as held in suspension, is coagulated 
or curdled, precisely like casein, by the addition of 
acids. This mode of adulteration, however, may 
be readily detected by the two following circum¬ 
stances, viz.;—The coagulum or curd, formed by 
acids in the mixture of milk and almond emulsion, 
as compared with that formed in milk alone, is but 
a little more than one-half; and the facility with 
which, by kneading the coagulum with the fingers, 
oil may be squeezed out of the almond curd, while 
none exists in that of the milk alone. 
Another adulteration to which milk is subjected 
in Paris, is to add a small quantity of sub-carbonate 
of potash, or of soda, which saturating the acetic 
acid as it forms, prevents the coagulation or sepa¬ 
ration of curd; and some of the dealers practise 
this with so much success as to gain the reputation 
of selling milk that never turns. Often when 
coagulation has taken place, they restore the 
fluidity by a greater or less addition of one or the 
other of the fixed alkalies. The acetate of potash, 
or of soda, thus formed, has no injurious effects on 
health, and besides, milk naturally contains a 
small quantity of acetate of potash, but not an atom 
of free carbonated alkali. Hence the detection of 
this mixture is evidently the most difficult of the 
processes recommended in the various adultera¬ 
tions mentioned in M. Barruel’s paper. Indeed, a 
chemist alone could conduct it; while the two 
former modes may be easily performed by any pei- 
son of common observation. 
A Friend to Health and Honesty. 
New York , Aug. 14th, 1846. 
(a) The only instrument that can be of any use 
in determining the qualities of milk, must be con¬ 
structed upon the principle of the Scotch cream- 
gauge or lactometer, described on page 171 of the 
present volume. 
CROPS IN MIDDLE GEORGIA. 
W hen I had the pleasure some three or four 
weeks ago of looking through your extensive 
Agricultural Implement Store, I promised to give 
you some account of the crops in Middle Georgia. 
At the time I left home, about the 10th of June, it 
had been raining for a week or ten days, and it was 
apprehended that the wheat and cotton crop was 
likely to be much injured. I have delayed, there¬ 
fore, till now, that I might give you a more satis¬ 
factory account of the products of that part of the 
State. 
It has generally been supposed, that the South¬ 
ern States were unsuitable* to the profitable growth 
of wheat; this opinion is certainly a mistaken one, 
as the facts of the last few years have proven. 
Ten years ago, and even less, the wheaten flour 
consumed in Georgia, was supplied chiefly from the 
Northern States. At present the interior, and 
much of the city demand, is the product of the 
country, an article too, which, in every respect, 
compares favorably with the best Northern; in 
some respects it is superior, containing more 
gluten, and less starch. I had an opportunity 
about the middle of May, of observing the crops, 
from within 20 miles of the Chatahoochee, to 
Augusta, a distance of about 203 miles. The 
wheat was decidedly more promising than the 
fields which I saw through North Carolina, Vir¬ 
ginia, or Maryland, along the line of the railroad 
This crop (I learned from a variety of sources to be 
relied on) has been secured without much loss from 
rain, rust, or any other cause, and is superabun- 
