The Portland daily press., 1876-11-09
THE PRESS.
THE FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.
Milk Sugar.


The following extract from the Rural New
Yorker, is interesting in speculative point of
view, though there is probably no immediate
prospect that its suggestions will be carried into
practical effect:
We hope the time is not distant when the
chemists may find use for milk sugar that
will create q large demand for 1t SO that IL VIII
enter into commerce on an equallty WIN otner
articles of general consumption. Shoud tnls
occur, we should have another element OF the
dairy which would add considerably to the
profits In the making OF cheese the mix sugar,
as is well known. mostly pours off with the
whey. OF the solid constituents of whey the
the milk sugar is in the largest proportion,
ranging from to per cent. In an average
sample of milk we have, in round plumbers,
water, about 81 parts; but 81 parts, the balance
OF the 100 parts being mineral matter.
1t will be seen that the milk sugar contained
in milk is larger than the proportion of butter,
and is as 5 TO when compared with the butter
and caseine combined. An estimate has been
made of the annual yield of sugar from the
whey of 30 factories, averaging 400 cows each,
and it amounts to the enormous quantity of g,
100000 lbs, or 10000 bbls At the price of only
loo per h., factory of 1000 cows on the above
estimate, would yield 800 pounds of milk sugar
per dry, worth $50, or $24OO per month. Milk
sugar at the present time brings high price.
1t is used by hom9opathists as the vehicle for
their medicines, and in other practice, as an ar
ticle of food for infants teething, being less apt
to produce acidity than cane sugar. 1t has also
been recommended as non-nitrogenous article
OF diet in pulmonary diseases. The demand,
being limited, regulates its production we sup
pose; and from its comparative scarcity the
price of course is high, being sold at the shops
not unfrequently at dollar per pound.
The milk sugar OF commerce comes from
SwitZerland. 1t is made, we have been inform
ed by allowing the whey from cheese-making
to trickle down the sides of the mountains in
wooden troughs or cutters. Threads are plac-
ed in the gutterss upon which the sugar ad-
heres as the wa.ery portions pass Oft in evapor-
alton.
On the authority of the American Enclyclo-
pedia: SIT is prepared from whey obtained from
milk coagulated with little dilute sulphuric
acid, and left several weeks in a cool place tC
crystalline. The crystals of sugar of milk are
collected and decolorized by animal charcoal
and repeated capitalization. BY the homeo.
pathists, sugar of milk is regarded as the most
inert substance upon the system, a1ei for this
reason, as we'll as on account of its great hard.
ness, which causes it TO reduce to extreme fire
ness the substances with which it is ground
they esteem it the best medium for theft
medicines, and are, by far, the largest con-
sumers of it,
We have no doubt there are various ways liz
which milk sugar could be used for food, and
if these were shown, it might prove an i'm
portant source of profit to the dairy. Among
the new uses to which substances are beir,
put, from time to time, it is matter of nj
little surprise that milk sugar should not be OF
the list. From the large quantities of whey a
the factories, the material would not be want
ing for the production of this sugar to almos
any demand. Will not some of our chemists
tell as how this product can be utilized, aD(
then the best method of manufacturing it? L
as much, or more, can be made from the suga
of milk as can be obtained for the butter, tn,
prospects of dairying will be cheering.