32 
ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 
Ohio seems likely to go, though in its displacement it may make haste slowlv, am 
that the butter-making as well as the cheese-making will soon be done at the facton 
there is no doubt. 
The disagreeable features of having hog yards connected with factories, its detei 
iorating influences upon the cheese and butter, not to mention its noisome stench i 
a neighborhood, is one that has been held in abeyance by the estimated feeding value 
of the refuse of the factory in the form of whey and buttermilk. The problem ha 
been discussed in its every pase, but, like “ Bancroft’s ” ghost so vividly portrayed b 
a political orator, it went down. A dozen plans are in vogue for its disposal. At th< 
patron factories several ways are practiced, one to return the whey to the dairyman ii 
his can, but as the milk drawer demands double pay, the profits resulting are small 
Other factories establish a yard and keep one hog' for each three cows. With tb 
milk-buying factories the whey belongs to the buyer, and here the hog yard is main 
tained in all its development, save in a few instances, like the system of factorie 
owned by the Straights, the whey is counted of no value, and is either given away t- 
be fed not nearer than one mile from the factorv, or is run into the river, thougl 
under certain restrictions the farmers are allowed to obtain this whey. During thi 
time the brain of one Ohio man has not been devising new tracks along old ruts ii 
this matter, but with a scientific grasp of mind, has found a value to it, and so begai 
to devise means to extract the sugar from the whey. Whey, as it runs from the vats 
contains nearly 4 and 87-100 per cent, of milk sugar, an article of commerce that sells 
at about 40 cents per pound, and is all imported at that. All plans to get it in an eco 
nomical manner have heretofore failed. The plan of Dr. Wittie simplified all. Be 
torts, vacuum pans, injectors, etc., were by his way unneeded. By the old process 
the greater part of the casine in the whey was boiled into the sugar product am 
could not be extracted except by a most difficult process. The Doctor’s plan obviate* 
all this difficulty. His plan had furnished a solution of the utilization of the refus< 
of one factory at least, and had at the same time obviated all of its disagreeable feat 
ures. Shorn of all perplexities, it now remains to be demonstrated how extensive i 
trade can be built up for this sugar, and if its cost can be so cheapened that, asid< 
from its supplying the druggists’ trade, where its use is so restricted owing to its scar 
city, that it can be made to take the place of the so regarded objectionable glucose oi 
commerce, it may become an important industry. 
If my audience will take a little trip to an obscure Ohio factory, nestled secureh 
between the bluffs of a little river, we will come upon the only whey, or rather mill 
sugar factory, in America ; a building 40 by 100 feet, two stories in height, is devotee 
to the business. Two boilers of ten horse power each, furnish steam for engines 
pumps, rotaries and steam boiling, and the refiners. The whey from the factor 
some ten rods distant is brought in an underground pipe and discharged into a sub 
terranean cistern. From here the whey is pumped up into the second story by i 
rotary, and the work of manufacture commences. How to first dispose of the case 
ous matter was solved by first scalding the whey in huge wooden tanks by means of i 
coil of steam pipe in the bottom. The centrifugal was used, but failed to throw 1 
out ^scaldingand Alteration was tried, but with no better results, and.at last specific 
gravity was employed as a separating agent, and the plan was a success. Muriatic 
acid was added to the scalding whey, and casine, by the chemical change, became 
lighter and floated to the surface, and the whitened mass is quickly removed witf 
scoops. The degree of heat employed is not allowed to exceed 180° and as soon as the 
casine has ceased to rise, the remaining whey is forced through filters made of cottor 
cloth to yet further remove the particles of casine that have been condensed into mi¬ 
nute masses, but by the resistance of the fluid, been prevented from rising. Then the 
boiling takes place. The whey, now of a bright amber color, is run into long bos 
boilers made of pine plank, 18 feet in length, 4 feet in width and 12 inches in depth 
in the bottom of which are a dozen lengths of steam pipe fed by the boilers below 
The boiling occupies several hours, and it is in this operation that the closest atten¬ 
tion is needed. Whey will take on more or less acidity, and acidity is fatal to perfecl 
crystalization, and a neutralizing agent to correct it is quite as likely to prove dam- 
aging as to benefit it, so lime cannot be employed. So far, chalk is best, but even that 
fails in certain instances, so that ammonia (I do not speak with certainty, however 
is substituted, and the change sought secured. The boiling syrup closely resembles 
maple sap, both in appearance and action , and as it approaches the sugar stage it 
thickens and at a time when the gauge indicates a certain density it is drawn off and 
placed in the crystalizing tanks. 
The mass is now of a very brown color, and its receptacle is a pine tub holding 
about three barrels. In crystalizing it has methods entirely its own. In the tanks 
little sticks are set m a perpendicular position, and to these the finest crystals of sugar 
attach themselves (though the sticks are not always used), another grade forms ir 
small irregular masses beneath the surface, and a third low grade falls to the bottom 
m the form of sediment, while upon the surface a substance forms that is neither 
sugar, salt nor ginger-bread, though resembling the latter to some extent, in three 
