WHAT IS CASEIN?

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 27 December 1913, Page 2

WHAT IS CASEIN?

Prof. H. H. Dean, in answer to the question'"What is casein?" says in the Farm and Dairy:—

"It is the cliief nitrogenous compound foJund in milk, and consists, chemically, of the elements earln.n. hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. It is distinguished from milk fat in that it contains the element nitrogen, the most valuable of all elements for plant, animal, and human food. It is the most expensive fertiliser which the farmer needs to purchase. It is the most expensive ingredient which the housekeeper buws in food. The white of an egg, the lean portion of meat, the curd of cheese, are common samples of foods containing the element nitrogen. . It alone builds muscle in the animal human body. Plants deprived of-,' nitrogen wither .arid die. '"Cflisein is secreted in mjlk by the. cow by means of special cell,activity. Its primary source is the nitrogenous material in the food fed to a cow, which is transformed into blood and from the blood it passes into the milk through tlu> action of cells.' The' foods fed to a cow containing nitrogen are the most expensive to purchase, such as clover liay, peas and gluten'meal, bran, noil cake, and cotton seed meal. Without a fair proportion of foods fairly rich in nitro-

genous matter, it is impossible for the cow to produce milk economically. And yet in testing milk at cheese factories, some would utterly neglect this important ingredient of milk and cheese. *