18 THE IMPROVING OF SKIM CHEESE A 
FRAUD ? 
The American Grocer prints a letter from 
Mr. J. H. Reall, in which it is assumed that 
the dairy interest of America is threatened 
with disaster by what Mr. Reall calls the 
adulteration of cheese, and the Grocer in¬ 
troduces the charge with comments. It say* 
the letter “ Directs attention to a fraud iu 
cheese which should receive the earliest, pos¬ 
sible consideration /it t he hands of the man¬ 
ufacturers and dealers in this important 
dairy product. It is not possible that the 
very life of this industry is to be placed in 
jeopardy by the wicked practices of a few 
unscrupulous factorymen and dealers. Once 
the fact is established that wc have shipped 
adulterated cheese to t he English market, 
we might as well bid a long farewell to oor 
export trade. We shoddy Americans may 
afford to kill ourselves on cheese fat, but it 
is too much to expect decent Englishmen to 
accommodate us in that way for the sake of 
a few paltry dollars that can be made out of 
it. We ask the Dairy Associations through¬ 
out the country to take hold of tills snhject. 
at once. What has the Little Falls Board of 
Trade to say about it ? It is now too late to 
have a law passed this Legislature, but here¬ 
after, the makers of such cheese should be 
required to stamp on them and on the boxes 
* This cheese is made of skimmed milk and 
animal fat.’ ” 
We think Mr, Reall and the Grocer are 
needlessly alarmed, and wo fear that Mr. 
Reall is talking about a subject which he 
has not fully investigated and on which ho 
is not well informed. The case, as stated, 
deals largely, it seems to us, in mere denun¬ 
ciation, without sufficient facts ; and when 
Mr. Reall speaks of branding New York 
houses for receiving “them abominable 
goods," in order that shippers may be “ on 
their guard in making their purchases,” the 
idea it would appear is slyly intended to be 
conveyed chat Philadelphia houses are more 
honorable than those of New York. 
Now for a few facts in the case as we under¬ 
stand them. The use of “ Oleomargarine” or 
“ animal fat,” in skimmed milk for the pur¬ 
pose of improving skimmed cheese, is not a 
fraud upon skimmed cheese manufacturers, 
because the fat added helps to make the 
skimmed cheese better in texture and flavor, 
more mellow and more palatable as a food, 
and therefore relieves the market of an infe¬ 
rior skimtned cheese. It reuders the pro¬ 
ducer and dealer less liable to loss, while tho 
consumer is better satisfied with the goods. 
That skimmed cheese can by this means be 
made almost equal to a good share of the 
\\ hole-milk cheese iu market and that it re¬ 
sembles whole-milk cheese in flavor and pal¬ 
atableness, would seem to merit something 
more than the hard words thus showered 
upon its manufacturers. 
We should he pleased to know what real 
objection can be offered to an improvement 
in skim cheese manufacture so long as there 
is nothing injurious or uuhealthful in the 
goods ? If “ Oleomarga rine,” or the fat from 
the caul of the ox, may be substituted for 
the fat secreted in the udder, what harm is 
there iu the procedure ? In eating meat, do 
we not cat the fat with the lean ; and can 
any one say that this fat is any more un¬ 
healthy than the l'at that passes through the 
milk glands which we designate as butter ? 
lias Mr. Reall or the Grocer any evidence 
that the so-called “Oleomargarine” cheese 
is unclean or in any respect more unhealtli- 
ful as an article of food than cheese made 
from milk containing the fat secreted in the 
mammary gland and passed thrnigh the 
udder ? If •*>, give us the facts that we may 
have some basis for the sweeping denuncia¬ 
tions made. Not a word of this has been 
shown. On the other hand, one of our most 
distinguished chemists—Prof. Caldwell of 
Cornell University—who has taken pains .to 
analyze the so-called “Oleomargarine” 
cheese, who has used it freely on his table, 
speaks in Its favor and says 11 To any one 
who understands the true nature of fats, the 
prejudice against “ Oleomargarine,” or a 
cheese containing fat from the caul of an ox 
instead of the bag of the cow, becuuse it is 
supposed not to be so clean and wholesome, 
appears nonsensical.” 
There is a class of cheesemongers who have 
bitterly denounced the manufacture of skim¬ 
med cheese, predicting that it was destruc¬ 
tive to the reputation of American cheese. 
They urge that the farmer better * brow a way 
the skimmed milk rather than make it Into 
cheese and put it on the market. They have 
no practical knowledge of cheese making or 
of the nutritive elements in skimmed milk ; 
they do not care whether the farmer makes 
a profit or a loss in his business, and heuce 
they do not always advise the best for his 
interests. 
We believe there is too much nutritious 
food in skimmed milk to be thrown away, 
and while we are disposed to recognize the 
force of the argument that there may be lia¬ 
bility of an excess of skimmed rnilk cheese 
thrown upon the market, we had hoped that 
the recent invention of improving skimmed 
milk by the use of “ Oleomargarine” or “ani¬ 
mal fat,” would obviate the difficulty and 
utilize the skimmed milk to the best advan¬ 
tage both for producer and consumer. We 
have been using the so-called “ Oleomarga¬ 
rine” cheese daily on our table for the past 
six months, and do not find it “abominable ;” 
but on the other hand we find it very pala¬ 
table and it is highly relished by many judges 
of cheese who have partaken of it. Of course 
we have, not the slightest pecuniary interest 
in “ Oleomargarine” manufacture, and have 
only made a test, of the cheese as alluded to 
for the purpose of investigating its character 
and “ to know what wo are talking about.” 
And now comes the statement that the 
“goods are abominable,” the manufacture 
“a fraud,” and that the public are warned 
against the deception. 
We hope the Grocer and Mr. Reall will 
make good their statements by giving facts 
to sustain their charges, for if we are wrong 
in our estimate of tho matter we would be 
glad to be corrected. 
Perhaps It would be well to add, iu this 
connection, that we were not aware that 
there was any secret iu tho manufacture or 
sale of these goods. Tho “Oleomargarine” 
cheese factories, as wo understand it, are 
open to the inspection of the public, and the 
cheese was not palmed off upon us or upon 
Prof. Caldwell or others whom we have 
heard as using it, under another name than 
its Own. So far as we are informed, the man¬ 
ufacturers have sold the cheese for what it 
is, relying on its merits and using no decep¬ 
tion in the matter. And wo supposed per¬ 
sons in this country at least, if not in En¬ 
gland, had the right to eat any kind of cheese 
they choose to select. Of course we agree 
with the Grocer that the cheese should go 
under its own distinctive Dame, and as " Oleo¬ 
margarine” Cheese is said to retain its flavor 
and have better keeping qualities than many 
other sorts of cheese, this would seem to be 
an inducement for sellihg it under a distinct¬ 
ive name. 
-♦♦♦- 
JERSEY GRADES FOR CHEESE DAIRYING. 
X. A. W ill a no -.—Knowing yon to be good 
aut hority, I wish to ascertain how our native 
or half-breed stock will cross wir.li a Jersey 
bull for cheese making. I imported flve pure¬ 
bred Jerseys from Connecticut last year, but 
as yet have not'got uny half-bred stock. The 
point is, are Jerseys crossed with other stock 
profitable for cheese factory purposes ? Do 
you know of any book lately published that 
treats on this subject ‘i Bo kind enough to 
give me this information and you will greatly 
oblige—C. M. Aceh. Wicklow, Canada. 
A cross of Jersey with common stock is 
much esteemed for butter dairying, and in 
some situations is to be h iglilv recommended. 
The Jerseys, as is well knoivn, yield an ex¬ 
ceedingly rich quality of milk and when 
common stock are ^elected of deep milking 
habit, tho grades from crossing with the Jer- 
sey would be likely to yield a good quantity 
of milk and of. excellent quality. If very 
rich cheese was desired the cross referred to 
would doubtless bo useful, but wu should 
say it was better adapted to butter dairying 
than cheese, It may be observed, however, 
that for cheese dairyiug a few grade Jerseys 
in the herd arc useful in improving the color 
and quality of the miik. 
Among the dairymen of Somersetshire, 
England, whore the famous Cheddar cheese 
is made, nearly every herd contains a few 
pure-bred Jeriqys or Jersey grades, for the 
purposo of improving the milk, and such a 
sprinkling of Jersey blood in the herd is con¬ 
sidered not only profitable but essential in 
giving a better character to the cheese. 
The question of best stock lor cheese dairy¬ 
ing is very fully discussed jn “Willard’s 
Practical Dairy liu-bandry,” a work recent¬ 
ly published by D. D. T. Moore of the Rural 
New-Yorker, and to be obtained at the 
office of this paper. 
- 
Coal Oil Lamps Injurious to Milk.— 
One of our dairymen, whose butter has a 
high reputation in this market, informs us 
there, had latterly been some complaints 
about it, the cause of which he for a time 
was unable to discover, but finally traced it 
to the fumes of a coal oil lamp used iu light¬ 
ing the milk room. It shows (if such a word 
is proper) the extreme sensitiveness of milk 
to the least impurity in the atmosphere and 
its rapid power of absorption. The difficulty 
was entirely removed by putting in a tin 
vent ilating tube, leading from the top of the 
chimney to the outside of the roof. Tho but¬ 
ter was not afterward complained of.— Prac¬ 
tical Farmer. 
She Norseman. 
BEST FOOD FOR WORKING HORSES. 
In a Report of the Maine State Board of 
Agriculture, the late John Stanton Gould, 
once President of the N. Y. Stato Ag. Society, 
said : 
I have found great difference of opinion 
with regard to feeding, and the amount of 
food necessary for keeping animals, and I 
resolved to go to headquarters. I spent con¬ 
siderable time in Now York, visiting the 
horse-railroad and the omnibus stables in 
that city and in Brooklyn, in order to learn 
their experiences. I found those in charge 
very courteous. They opened their books 
and gave me every information desired. To 
sum up the results, looking over tho record 
of their experience for several years, I found 
that they had all settled down, each company 
for itself, as tiro result of careful and repeated 
experiments, tho details of which 1 was 
privileged to observe, upon one uniform 
rule for horse-railroad horsos, and that was 
twelve pounds of hay and ten pounds of 
Indiau meal per day. In that way, a rail¬ 
road horse was kept up to his highest con¬ 
dition, and they were enabled to do their 
work more satisfactorily than under any 
other system that lias been tried. Oats had 
been repeatedly used as an article of food, 
and the cost was carefully compared with 
that of the Indian meal. It was found at 
the time, that during the hot weather the 
feeding of this amount of Indian meal would 
be injurious ; but. the result of the experience 
was, that Indian meal, on the whole, for a 
railroad or omnibus horse, was the true 
thing. But they have one very curious 
practice, the reason of which I am unable to 
fathom, which I ought to state in connection 
with this, as possibly bearing upon the 
subject under discussion. They invariably 
water all their horses at one o'clock at night. 
They have an idea, how true it is 1 do not 
know, that watering their horses at night 
adds greatly to their power of digesting 
food, and prevents injurious consequences. 
TREATMENT OF A BALKY HORSE. 
> . S - 
The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty 
to Animals puts forth the following rules 
for the treatment of balky horses : 
1. Pat the horse upon the neck ; examine 
the harness carefully, first on one side then 
on the other, speaking encouragingly while 
doing so ; then jump into tho wagon and 
give the word go ; generally he will obey. 
2. A teamster in Maine says he can start 
the worst balky horse by taking him out of 
the shafts and making him go round in a 
circle till ho is giddy. If the first dance of 
this sort does not cure him, a second will. 
8. To euro a balky horse, simply place 
your hand over the horse’s nose, and shut off 
his wind until he wants to go. 
4*. The brain of a horse seems to entertain 
but one idea at a time ; therefore, wliipping 
only confirms his stubborn resolve. If you 
can, by any means, give him a new subject 
to think of, you will generally have no 
trouble in starting him. A simple remedy is 
to take a couple of turns of stout twine 
around the fore leg, just below the knee, 
tight enough for the horse to feel, and tie in 
a bow-knot. At the first, check he will 
probably go dancing off, and, after going a 
short distance, you can get out and remove 
the string to prevent injury to the tendon, 
in your further drive. 
5. Take the tail of the horse betweeu the 
bind legs, and tie it by a cord to the saddle 
girth. 
U. Tie a string around the horse’s ear, 
close to his head. 
FRENCH MODE OF SELECTING HORSES. 
A Paris correspondent of the Lancaster 
Farmer says The purchasers of horses for 
the French army always endeavor to obtain 
a first look at the animal when he is tranquil 
and in the stable ; noting if the animal sup¬ 
ports itself equally well on all its legs, and if 
one seems to yield, to specially examine It; 
attention Is then directed to the largeness of 
the pupil of the eye, which ought to be more 
dilated when in the stable, than when ex¬ 
posed to full light. After the animal has 
been led out of the stable, the eye ought to 
he again examined to observe if the pupil has 
contracted ; if not, the right is feeble ; 
others, to test the power of vision, feign to 
strike the forehead with the hand. If the 
hollow over the eyes be profound, and the 
temple grey, old age is to be concluded ; 
wounds about the temple suggest attacks of 
staggers, and when the end of the nose 
presents circular scars, it may be concluded 
tile horse has been twitched with a cord to 
ensure his quietness while being shod or 
having had to submit to some painful oper¬ 
ation. v 
PIG FEEDING. 
A series of experiments in pig feeding 
have recently been made at the Michigan 
Agricultural College, and the result of one 
intended to show the amount of meal re¬ 
quired to make a pound of pork, as well as 
the age at which pigs show the best returns 
for the feed consumed, has been published. 
Forty-two pigs were taken and divided 
into two lots, those under six months old 
being put. in one lot, and those over six 
months old in another. The pigs were all fed 
on corn meal alone, and were weighed at 
starting and at the end of every four weeks. 
The result is shown in the following table, 
the figures given indicating pounds and deci¬ 
mals of a pound : 
Periods of four 
weeks each. 
Ago of Groups. 
Meal consumed 
per week for 
each 100 lbs. of' 
Uve weight. 
Meal reouired to 
produce one lb. | 
Increase of live 
weight. i 
First period. 
Under si* months, 
omitting first week. 
88.53 
3.86 
Over six months. 
17.71 
3.91 
Average, all ages... 
20.4.1 
3.93 
Second period. 
Under six months. . 
26.00 
3.81 
Over six months.| 
10.07 
4.08 
Average, all ages. 
20.57 
4.00 
Third period. 
Under six months. 
23.22 
4.65 
Over six months. 
17.23 
1.64 
Average, all ages... 
18.50 
4.61 
Fourth period. 
1 
Under six months.... 
21.27 
5.71 
Over six months. 
15,19 
0.49 
1 
Average, nil ages... 
15.91 
0.43 
Average of 1st, 
2d und 3d pu- 
Under six mouths, 
omitting tirst week. 
20.51 
4.08 
rlods. 
Over six mouths. 
17.83 
4.22 
1 
Average, all ages... 
19.57 
4.19 
From this table it will be seen that the 
younger pigs oat more in proportion to their 
live weight and require less food to make a 
pound’s increa se in live weight. It will also 
bo seen that while during tho first three 
months the young pigs gained a pound for 
every 4.08 pounds of meal consumed, during 
the last month they required 5.71 pounds of 
meal to make a pound of increase, and that 
the older hogs gained as much on 4.23 pounds 
of meal during the first three months ns on 
6,40 pounds during the last four weeks. 
Other interesting calculations as to the 
amount of meal required to make a pound 
of pork, tho periods when the best results 
are obtained from feeding, and the age and 
degree of fatness which should send the hog 
to the butcher's, can also be made from this 
table.— Ex. 
-- 
ABOUT ADVERTISING SWINE. 
Under the heading of “Why Is It?” the 
Swine aud Poultry Journal has the following 
suggestive paragraph: 
It seems to us that the white breeds of 
swine must be extinct, or else no one is 
breeding them for sale. The Berkshire 
breeders seem t.o be the only live swine 
breeders in America. They are the only 
men who have enterprise enough to adver¬ 
tise to auy extent, and in consequence are 
reaping the reward of their good manage¬ 
ment in increased sales and prices. We 
have ten inquiries for the names of Berk¬ 
shire breeders to one of any other breed ; 
next following iu number is the Poland- 
China, with once in a while an inquiry of 
“ Who Breeds Suffolk and Chester Whites ?” 
—and as we refer all such inquirers to our 
advertising columns, it is very evident the 
Berkshire breeders get the best of it. We 
are surprised at the lack of interest and 
business tact of swine breeders, as compared 
with the breeders of all other kinds of im¬ 
proved stock. By a careful examination of 
the advertising columns of thirty agricul¬ 
tural and stock papers, we find the propor¬ 
tion of swine breeders who bring their stock 
before the public by advertising to be about 
onc-tenth that of cattle and one-thirteenth 
that of poultry breeders. Surely if it pays 
poultry breeders so well to advertise (aud all 
admit that it does pay), it would pay swine 
breeders still better. Wu find poultry and 
cattle breeders, also, ever ready to write and 
tell the public about the useful and economic 
value of their stock, best manner of breeding 
and rearing it, and the best breeds for certain 
localities; but it seems impossible to get a 
swine breeder to let the public know any¬ 
thing about his stock. 
