It will be seen, by these experiments, that the richer the milk in butter, the less the specific gravity, thin cream being 30° below the water mark. The richer the milk in caseine, or cheese, the greater the specific gravity, the milk of the Devon indicating 15° above the water mark. Watering milk will of course reduce the specific gravity of milk rich in cheese, and by this means it can be made to indicate the average density of pure milk. In the same way, milk rich in butter may have its specific gravity increased until it nearly reaches that of water, but no amount of watering can make it indicate over 96°, which is the figure given for pure water. A little salt, or other ingredient, may be added to bring the density up to the pure milk mark. So the blueness of milk, produced by either skimming or watering, may be removed by the use of burnt sugar, which will give it a rich color. Or annotto may be used for the same purpose. Many expedients have been resorted to, from time to time, by the dishonest, for the purpose of disguising the impoverishment of milk by skimming and watering.
"But," says some one, "why tell dishonest men how they can skim and adulterate their milk?" We have not done so. We have told honest men some of the practices of the dishonest, with the view of enabling them to detect the fraud. True, the hydrometer is not an accurate or legal test; but it shows the exact density of the milk tried, and this is a very important point. When you have decided this, by the use of the cream-gauges, you can determine the amount of cream; and if you let the milk stand until it coagulates, and the cheese separates from the whey, you can tell the relative proportion of water and cheese. This may be a somewhat slow and clumsy process, but it is nevertheless decisive, and often repays the trouble. Foreign substances, so far as not held in solution by the water, or not entangled in the cheese or cream, will settle at the bottom of the glasses. Besides, with these evidences to start on, the ways of a suspected person can be watched, and he often be caught in the very act of violating the law, which we quote below:
§ 1. Whoever shall knowingly sell, supply, or bring to be manufactured to any cheese manufactory in this State, any milk diluted with water, or in any way adulterated, or milk from which any cream has been taken, or milk commonly known as skimmed milk; or whoever shall keep back any part of the milk known as "strippings;" or whoever shall knowingly bring or supply milk to any cheese manufactory that is tainted or partly sour from want of proper care in keeping pails, strainers, or any vessel in which said milk is kept, clean and sweet, after being notified of such taint or carelessness; or any cheese manufacturer who shall knowingly use, or direct any of his employes to use, for his or their individual benefit, any cream from the milk brought to said cheese manufacturer, without the consent of all the owners thereof, shall, for each and every offense, forfeit and pay a sum not less than twenty-five dollars, nor more than one hundred dollars, with costs of suit, to be sued for in any court of competent jurisdiction, for the benefit of the person or persons, firm or association or corporation, or their assigns, upon whom such fraud be committed.