Agriculture and Pastoral.

Otago Witness, Issue 1098, 14 December 1872, Page 4

Agriculture and Pastoral.

CONDENSING MILK.

(Land and Water.)

The mode of condensing milk and rendering it fit for transport, has been known and practised for very many years. The Aylesbury_ oonlpiknys says the Standdrd, is ail dffshddt, dr rather" aeees^sidn frdni the Aiigld-Svnss, its nlanage'r, Mr". Merrianlj Haying been diie of the chief prompters and managers df the latter" from its commencement; arid dther diree'tors df the old cdmpanjr are now assdciated with its English rival; It was established last year, and began its business in September, taking the milk of about 400 or 500 cows, producing about 1,200 gallons of milk daily, with the exception of Sundays, when the farmers who own the cows use the milk for butter and other p\irposes. The company have just erected further buildings to meet the increased demand for their milk, and when in full working order, which, they will shortly be, they will take the milk of more than 1,000 cows, and expect to make from 6,000 to 10,000 tins per day, according to the season of the year. The factory, in which about 100 hands, old and young, are employed, is a few minutes walk from the town of Aylesbury, picturesquely situated on the banks of the canal which runs through the famous vale, and having a road on each side, forming the company's premises, whioh they rent under Baron Rothschild, into the shape of a triangle, pleasantly surrounded by trees, and measxmng about three acres, including grass lands, yards, and put-buildings.

If for no other reasons, it would have been a happy thought to have fixed on Aylesbury for their locale, the very name, being redolent, like Canaan, of milk and the good things connected therewith ; and the supply of excellent milk from some of the best pastures in England will doubtless commend the choice. Steam is got up in the factory at six in the morning, and the farmers,, who live from one to ten miles of it, begin to deliver their milk about seven ; but it is nearly nine o'clock before the last arrives. We were on the scene during the delivery, and remained till the end of the process. The milk is emptied at once from the large tin cans generally used in the trade into a trough, which conducts it through sieves into a large tank, holding about 800 gallons, in the department where the first part of the process takes place. From this tank it is drawn into large open metal cylinders, which are slung up by a crane, and plaoed in a hot bath in large tanks, somewhat after the manner of the tins of meat in the preserving process ; after remaining in this for some time they are again lifted by the cranes and emptied into large open funnelshaped vats, whence the hot milk is drawn up through a pipe in the centre into the condensing pans on the upper floor ; the sugar having been mixed with it solely for the purpose of preserving it. It remains in these, subject to somewhat low heat, for two or three hours, while the evaporation of the water is taking place, and the milk gradually condensing. When this part of the process, which may be seen through the glass window of the condenser, is completed, the milk, then about the consistency of liquid honey, returns by a pipe into the lower room, and is received again into the open cylinders, which are swung into the central tanks ; this time being filled with cold water for the purpose of cooling — the regulation of the temperature during the whole process being a matter of the greatest nicety. Thence it is taken to the filling-room and run into the lib. tins, which are soldered up and packed in cases of four dozen each, ready for sale. The greatest care is taken that no tin leaves the establishment unless perfectly air-tight ; and to ensure this each one is closely examined by a lad, who, in addition to his regular wages, gets Id. each for every tin he finds imperfect, and the solderer has to take and pay for its contents. The condented milk in these tins gradually thickens, becoming slightly more consistent \ip to five or six months ; after which it remains of the same con.istency, and will continue good for years, perhaps as long as the tins themselves continue sound, and in all climates ; and, even when opened, remains sweetforweeks. ' It should "be mentioned, that the greatest cleanliness is observed throughout the whole process. Even the milk tins which the fanners deliver, immediately on their being emptied are, in the receiving-room, placed in warm water, and scrubbed inside with brushes. A strong jet of steam is tiirned into them, searching every chink and cranny ; and, finally, another very powerful jet of cold water completes the cleansing process, which is also applied continually to all cylinders and receptacles used' in the factory. And, in addition to this, the floor of the lower room is constantly deluged with streams of water supplied by pipes from the Chiltern Hills Water Company's ,works. The milk received from the farmers, at about 2d. per quart, is tested in a variety of ways

several times iri a week, arid S&itte is stao4 in pans to test the rise of cream 1 , H f'fe^Witf of which is carefully kept. The contract^ with the farmers are very stringent, and if anything is found wrong with the milk the company reserve to themselves the right of returning it, and at once throwing up the contract. They are careful' also to examine the police records of the district, to see if any of the farmers whose milk they take have any cases of diseased cattle oil their' f attns, whkh are bound by Act of Parliament, under" heavy penalties, to report rtt drtee to 1 the police. The sttgar vised is df the best refilled kind, some also from beetr'ddi, arid we Weed hardly observe that rid adulteration tafceß plftee at any part of the process ; it would be impossible) and it attempted would ai once defeat the great object— riamety, the preservation of the milk ; and atf the article is sold only in. the Company's tins, hermetically closed /And labelled, it is impossible for retailers to tamper with it. The result is, that/ we have an article which is pure milk, not an article made from milk, with the addition of sugar ; all that is taken from the milk being the water, which in milk direct from the now constitutes as muoh as ßoparts out of 100, Astounding as this statement may seem, there is no doubt about it, and the stream of colourless water which runs, as we saw it, continuously from the condensers gives ocular evidence of it, and its being almost tasteless further shows that by the process the milk loses nothing but its water, and this it does to the extent of about 55 parts out of the 80, leaving in the condensed milk from 20 to 25 parts of water, the rest being the cascine, butter, or fat, and other solid substanoes which remain intact. This is proved by the fact that when the proper quantity of water is again added to the condensed milk, it will, at a certain temperature, churn into butter. The analyses of the condensed milk produced by tne Swiss and English oompanies made by Baron Liebig and many other eminent chemists, leave no room for doubting the above facts.