438 
STATE AGEICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 
It will be seen therefore that casein (the leading constituent in cheese) 
is the chief nitrogenized constituent in milk. It is highly nutritious, and it 
is from this source that the development of the tissues is effected in young 
animals which feed upon it. “The young animal,” says Liebig, “receives in the 
form of casein (which is distinguished from fibrin and albumen by its great 
solubility, and by not coagulating when heated) the chief constituents of the 
mother’s blood. To convert casein into blood no foreign substance is re¬ 
quired, and in the converting of the mother’s blood into casein, no elements 
of the constituents of the blood have been separated. When chemically 
examined, casein is found to contain a much larger proportion of the earth of 
bones than blood, and that in a very soluble form, capable of reaching every 
part of the body. 
Thus even in the earliest period of its life the development of the organs 
in which vitality reside, is in the carnivorous animals, dependent upon the 
supply of a substance identified in organic composition with the chief con¬ 
stituents of its blood.” 
These facts have been alluded to because there is a misapprehension gen¬ 
erally in the minds of people in regard to the nutritive properties of cheese. 
It is considered to a great extent as a mere luxury, when the facts show that 
there is no article of food in common use that is so nutritious. 
Professor Johnson states that a pound of cheese is more nutritive than two 
pounds of beef, and as it contains no bones and scarcely any waste, and is 
readily substituted for meat, always ready for the table, requiring no cook¬ 
ing, easily transported, and preserved for long periods, a luxury as well as a 
healthful and useful article of food, it deserves to enter very largely into the 
consumption of a people. 
When the Americans begin rightly to understand that a pound of fine 
cheese instead of being a mere luxury, is at the same time twice as nutritious 
as unequal weight of steak for which we at the East are paying from 18c to 
25c per pound, they will understand as the English do, that its use is eco¬ 
nomical, and demand the utmost production that the country can give. 
DAIRYING AS A SPECIALTY. 
V 
But suppose we have resolved to enter upon this branch of farming, will it 
be best to make it the sole business of the farm to the exclusion of other 
branches ? This question has been fully discussed and pretty efiectually 
tested in practice, through the old dairy districts of New York. 
A few years ago, the dairymen of Herkimer insisted that the dairy alone 
was more remunerative than other kinds of farming, and hence it was not 
worth while to devote attention to other branches. The area of pastures and 
meadows was spread to their utmost limit. They were plowed only when ne¬ 
cessity compelled, and then speedily returned to grass. Even the breeding 
and raising of stock were neglectsd, and the herds largely made up by im¬ 
porting cattle from non-dairying disiricts. So strongly did this single spe¬ 
ciality system impress the mind, that butter manufacture was abandoned, so 
