446 
STATE AGKICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
There is another suggestion in regard to rennet and annotto which is not 
understood, even by our oldest and best cheese makers. At many of the 
factories great complaints are made that the rennets are weak, and extraor¬ 
dinary large quantities are used at heavy expense. It is true there is great 
difference in the strength of rennets, and the quantities of milk they will 
coagulate, but the trouble is often aggravated by not properly understanding 
the strength of the materials employed. The annotto commonly nsed is cut by 
potash, a powerful alkali. Rennet is an acid, or at least its action is similar, 
and is directly opposite that of an alkali. The one neutralizes the other. 
Now, if annetto is cut with very strong lye, or a strong solution of potash 
when it is added to the milk, it neutralizes or destroys the effect of a large 
quantity of rennet. Hence the annotto should always be cut with as weak a 
solution of potash or lye as is possible to dissolve it. 
UTILIZING WHEY. 
The utilizing of whey from faetories has received considerable attention, 
and various suggestions have been made as to its value and most profitable 
employment. Its analysis shows that it is too valuable to be thrown away. 
Some contend that it can be turned to the most profit when fed to cows, 
while others stoutly affirm that more can be realized from it as food for hogs. 
While in England I was told by the dairy farmers, (and it was confirmed by 
the provision dealers in London), that a very superior quality of pork was 
made by feeding whey mingled with barley meal; that, in fact, no bacon 
was equal to it in delicacy of flavor, and that it sold for most money in the 
market. 
Of the solid constituents of whey, the sugar of milk is in the largest pro¬ 
portion, being very much iu the same ratio that it is in the milk. Some ef¬ 
fort, it would seem, ought to be made with a view of extracting this material 
for commerce. The milk sugar that we find at the shops is imported from 
Switzerland, and is retailed at one dollar per pound. An estimate has been 
made of the annual yield of sugar from thirty factories, averaging 400 cows 
each, and it amounts to the enormous quantity of two millions of pounds, or 
10,000 barrels; but, suppose the price is only ten cents per pound, then a 
factory of a thousand cows, on the above estimate, would yield 800 pounds of 
sugar per day, which would amount to $80, or $2,400 per month. 
When in London, I had some conversation with Prof. Voelcker, the great 
chemist of the Royal Agricultural Society, on this subject, and he was sur¬ 
prised that no effbrt had been made by the American factories to turn this 
constituent of the whey to account, since the large quantities of milk received 
at one point made it more feasible than where the milk was scattered over 
the country and worked up in family dairies. Good milk contains from 8 to 
9 per cent of butter and casein, and 5 per cent of milk sugar. The analysis 
of whey shows that it yields 4|- percent, of milk sugar,'or half as much weight 
as the butter and casein of the milk combined. 
In Switzerland, milk sugar is made by allowing the whey to trickle down 
