Some Facts About Milk.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4462, 14 September 1909, Page 2

Some Facts About Milk.

Some idea of the importance of milk as human food may be gained from the fact that about cne-sixth of the total food of the average family is furnished by it and its products, says a bulletin of the Department of Agriculture. Of the various mammals whose milk is used for food in different parts of the world may be mentioned the goat in the hilly districts of Europe, the buffalo in India, the llama in South America, the camel in desert countries and the mare on the steppes of Eussia and central Asia. Sheep’s milk is used in some countries for making cheese and iD other ways, and the milk of reindeers is commonly used as food in the arctic regions. With us the milk of the cow so far sui passes all other kinds in importance that unless otherwise specified the word milk is taken to refer to cow’s milk only. Good, unadulterated milk should contain about 87 per cent, of water and 13 per cent, solids. Milk contains bacteria of many kinds and in varying numbers. They cause the souring of milk as well as the ripening of cream and cheese, and produce many other changes in the appearance and flavor. The number present in freshly-drawn milk varies enormously with the conditions of milking, and, as they are greatly increased with dirty and careless handling, cleanliness' in all matters pertaining to the milking and marketing of milk and keeping it in the home cannot be too strongly insisted on. Disease germs, notably those of typhoid, diphtheria, scarlet fever and tuberculosis, may also be carried in milk, so that the purity of the milk supply is of vital importance to every family and community. The problem of keeping milk sweet is one of checking the growth of the bacteria ; and as they are inactive at a temperature below 50 degrees Fahr., milk should be kept in a cool place. Two common methods for preserving milk are pasteurization and sterilization. In the former the aim is to apply heat in such a way as to kill most of the baoteria without producing undesirable changes in the milk; in the latter, to apply enough heat to kill all the bacteria, but with the least possible undesirable change. Chemical preservatives in milk are considered injurious to health, and are forbidden by pure-food legislation in many states.