plished if the force at the disposal of this department were sufficient to inspect every factory and creamery in the state each year, and compel, by the strong arm of the law, the best sanitary regulations, and suggest through instruction the best possible management. If this work could be thoroughly done, the butter and cheese products of Wisconsin would be placed, in quality, where they would find no dangerous competition either in American or European markets.

COURT PROCEEDINGS.

In all the cases brought by this department during the last two years in behalf of the state, not one has been compromised. No effort has been made to secure success for the sake of success in any of these cases, unless the evidence warranted fully the conviction of the defendant. In every instance of prosecution the case for the state has rested and depended upon the testimony of the chemist of this department, Mr. A. S. Mitchell. The chemical tests made by him have never been impeached in the judgment of court or jury by opposing expert testimony.

This department has found Wisconsin courts good places in which to try violators of pure-food laws. They have been found above the reach of personal and local considerations, and alive to the necessity of sustaining those laws which protect health and which tend to secure honesty in trade.

REPORT OF THE CHEMIST.

Galactase.

Milk sugar manufactured.

Casein utilized.

Puffy cheese.

MILK.

Since the publication of the last report of this department, few important discoveries have been made in the chemistry of milk.

The most important scientific discovery relative to the composition of milk is perhaps the discovery of an enzyme normal in milk and having digestive properties similar to trypsin of the pancreatic juice. The original article was published by Drs. Babcock and Russell in the proceedings of the Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Wisconsin, for 1897. Since that report further work has been done confirming the presence of the enzyme, galactase, and determining the relative amounts present in cow's milk during the various periods of lactation. Expermients have also been made showing its presence in the milk of other mammalia all of which have been published in the report of this experiment station for 1898.

The increased production of milk sugar in the United States has greatly lessened its cost and increased its demand, with the result that the Swiss and foreign product has been almost excluded from this country. Many factories are in successful operation in the eastern states and one in Illinois.

The demand for casein obtained from skimmed milk and used in the sizing of paper is greatly on the increase, and bids fair to become a large and important industry. Many of the newer and better class of books are printed on paper so sized.

Many calls have come to this department from cheese-makers who are troubled with "puffy cheese," due to filthy milk or milk improperly cared for. As this department has principally to do with the enforcement of the laws with reference to the adulteration of dairy products and food and drugs, the inspectors are unable to make the tests required to locate the milk giving the trouble.

FIG. 9.-Floating curd from a very bad milk. Condition reached by further development of fig. 8, or a greater number of gas-producing bacteria.

Detection of tainted milk.

Directions for making this test are given under "Improved Curd Test," in bulletin No. 67, published by the Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Wisconsin, entitled "Factory Tests for Milk." These directions are also given in perhaps more concise form in the manual entitled "Testing Milk and Its Products," by Farrington & Woll. This work describes many other tests of value to dairymen, cheese and butter makers. For the convenience of cheesemakers, that portion of the bulletin referring to the curd test is here inserted in abridged form.

WISCONSIN CURD TEST.

An improvement over the ordinary fermentation test is the preparation of a curd test or the making of a small pat of curd out of each patron's milk. In this the conditions of the test more closely approximate those that occur when the milk is made into cheese. The test as here described originated at the Wisconsin Dairy School in 1895, and is known as the Wisconsin Curd Test.

Improvised curd test.

4 Dairy.

C, cans used to hold samples; P, pipette for measuring rennet; K, knife for breaking curd.