The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1881-04-08
MILK-TS QTALITY AND
value.
RACINE COLLEGE LABORATORY,

1lACLNE NOLkEO1 AA0OhA1Oh1f
February 10, 1881.
Editor Racine Agriculturist: - Milk
is often spoken Of as kind of model
food, because it contains all the vari-
GUS kinds of nutritive matter which
are required to build up the whole ami
NAL frame-bones, nerves and brain,
and the muscular system. Besides this.
it furnishes that which is also reces-
sary, fuel to keep up the animal heat.
It's appropriate elements are water,
about 81 per cent; casein. about AZ
per cent butter, about 81 per cent ;
miik-sugar, about AZ per cent /; and
mineral matter, about 3-5ths of one per
cent. The use of the casein, or that
which goes chiefly into the cheese, is to
build up the muscular tissue the fats,
which form the butter, are essential to
both the muscular and the nervous It's
sue, and are sources Of heat while
sugar is conceded as being used entire
| ly In the production of heat. Lastly,
the mineral matter, the salts, supply
US with the material for the bony frame
work of our bodies.
From the above it will be seen that
milk is very complex substance, and
at the same time one of the most uni
versally useful food-materials known
to man. The milk of other animals
| bes ides that of the cow las been found,
as might naturally be supposed, to pos
sess the same nutritive matter in slight
ly different proportions. Some of these,
such as the milk of camels, asses, goats
and ewes, have been, and are yet in
some countries, used as food for man.
Human milk is poorer in casein and
richer in sugar than cows milk. and
hence, when the latter Is substituted
for human milk, it needs to be diluted
with about 18th its bulk OF water, and
sugar added. Still the best results ap-
pear to be obtained by gradually les
sening the amount of this change from
normal cows milk +; in other words, by
accustoming the infant, gradually and
yet quickly, to the use of cows -milk,
pure and simple.
Notwithstanding that dilution may
be sometimes desirable, as above
shown, yet all prefer to be certain that
CiiU AuIlh AuL uloAlCu lIlCll1 COIltCl1lS OIlly
the normal amount of water, and mani
fest an adherence of the "cow with
the iron tail" The specific gravity of
the article ID now very generally adopt
ed as sue and most speedy test for
the presence Of an abnormal amount
of water. The average of 1000 sam.
pies obtained in France gave | $50 spe-
cific gravity, the minimum being l.O29
and the maximum 1888. The average
of SO chemists of this country and Eng
land gives about the same and as a
result, wherever the testing of milk Is
performed by municipal or other In
spectors, as in the city of New York,
the minimum is placed at 1923. The
only samples of milk which have come
to my notice, or of which can lind
any record, which fell below 1923 spe-
cific gravity were obtained from cows
either diseased or @strlppers," 4. e.,
nearly dried up.
AS will be seen from the subjoined
analysis of the milk Of two cows-No.
being fed on nutritious grass and hay,
and abundantly supplied Herewith,
while No. 2 was fed on very poor pas
ture, the supply being also scanty,-the
quality Of the milk depends very great
ly on the quality Of the food.