ON DAIRYING.

Feilding Star, Volume XXVII, Issue 76, 21 October 1905, Page 2

ON DAIRYING.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, As lam still open for discussion on the above subject, kindly allow me once more through the medium of your columns to bear upon Mr Brownlie's epistle apologis ing for any grammatical errors I chanced to have made in comparing subjects of different natures (Latin abbreviations excepted). Mr Brownlie is deserving of credit for his in. vestigations, saying nothing of the time in which he has taken to make them. I will endeavor to deal as briefly as possible with the only relevant portion of that gentleman's letter. The colostrum milk query aa he puts it thus :— " On that magnanimous plea I would suggest his explaining this formula the result of a sample of 40grs of milk analysed : water 86 8, fat .8, sugar 2*3, casein and albumen 6*B, ash 11. The sample was colored and formed a yellowish liquid and precipitated casein." (No need to mention the casein being precipitated, which would always be the case under natural circumstances becoming coagulated by artificial means only, either by the application of heat or the addition of rennet). The analysis of this sample shows it to be colostrum milk, pure and simple. What does Mr Brownlie wish to know ? Resembling a child of tender years, he attempts at putting a question, wishes one to understand, but the faculty of being explicit is missing. I take it — if the sample mentioned by him was added to a given quantity of normal milk at a given temperature, what would be the results at the end of a given period ? Let us base our calculations on a larger scale than Mr Brownlie gives. 40grs would only suffice to experiment upon " infant diseases," and as the order of the day is dairying, we can pass on to this topic with" all good grace. We will take the process of cheese making which from beginning to end is a process of fermentation. The sample of colostrum milk I had under my supervision varied but slightly to Mr Brownlie's in as much as its proportions showed : Water 85* „ fat 3*l, sugar 2*4, casein and albumen 7 9, ash 13. We now add 8£ per cent to a vat of normal milk at a temperature of 86 Fr. maintaining one hour, after which we stir in a 5 per cent solution of rennet extract, 3ozs per lOOgals of milk ; this in 45 minutes was coagulated, but the consistency was. remarkably peculiar in itself, and to a great extent foreign to the touch, of a slimy nature, and with the index finger could be drawn out in ropes. Milk, in the ordinary course of events at this stage, bas a short texture, and will break readily and clearly before the finger. The experimental sample is now cut with curd knives into half inch cubes, temperature raised to 98Fr. and maintained for an bour and a haif ; by this time we can expel, say, 90 pc; cent of the water, which, by the way, takes with it most of the milk, sugar, and asb, -2 of the fat and a small portion of tbe casein ; following tbis the temperature was held at 94 Fr. in the curd, and at the expiration of two hours the mass of coagulated casein had gained a meaty texture, showing very slight elasticity. We fcund at this stage the lactic acid fully checked, or which might be more logically termed, the sugar of milk (left in the 10 per cent water) showed practically no decomposition, which under ordinary circumstances the development of lactic acid could easily be detected by both taste and smell. Milled, salted, hooped, then pressed for 24 hours, it was taken out and placed in a curing room at an average temperature of 66 Fr. At the expiration of six weeks the cheese showed a development of foreign organisms, the utility of the product being nullified. Three months later we made further investigations, this time cutting it open, and I can only define tbe effect on the nose as that resembling between a stale boiled lobster and a discarded septio tank. I was not anxious to try tbe effect on the palate during any part of the experiment, but administering a small portion for human consumption — say, for instance, to Mr Brownlie, I would predict the result to ba magical ; probably in such a case effects would be reorganised and details curtailed, etc. It would also suffice to show Mr Brownlie the vitality of the organisms of colostrum milk. Dwelling again upon the point in debate, can Mr Brownlie give us, or predict with any degree of certainty, the time it would take for cow's milk to become normal after calving? No doubt Mr Brownlie with a little tnition would make a good dairy instructor, but I am pleased to be in a position to say we are not in need of sucb officers at Cheltenham. Mr Brownlie knows abont as much of wy ambitions as he does of other matters be assumes, but apparently the oommon faotory manager and tbe " cow spanker " are not in demand with that gentleman and his overplus of brains. Apolq. gising for transgressing so much oh yonr valuable space, and thanking you in anticipation. I am, etc., J. Murray, Manager Cheltenbam Dairy Co. Cheltenham, 18th Oqtabes, Messrs James and Co. advertise for i strong boy.