The Morning Astorian

NEW INDUSTRY.

Makers Milk Powder - Recent Factor In Dairy Business.

Important changes in the dairy business may be brought about by the extension of the new process of making milk powder. In brief, the method is to pass the milk over hot rollers, from which it is scraped as a thin dry sheet then sifted into powder and put up in cans, bags or boxes. The method is adapted to skim milk or whole milk, and also, it is claimed, to eggs. Several hundred of the machines for this purpose have been set in operation in various parts of Europe and America.

Probably there is no reason to expect that the growth of this industry will interfere much with the shipment of fresh milk. More likely it will be an entirely new source of income in the dairy business.

The manufacture of skim milk into powder would furnish a good market for the skim milk byproduct of large creameries, and the use of whole milk would be practical in sections where milk can be produced cheaply and abundantly and where there is no other market at present. Both milk and skim milk would have to be sold at low prices to make the industry profitable, as the cost of machines and their operation would make the product quite expensive. The powder has about seven times the strength of milk and has to be diluted with that proportion of water to equal ordinary milk of average quality.

Milk powder might be manufactured for provision on shipboard, in tropical countries and wherever a compact, long keeping product is necessary. In parts of Europe it is used quite extensively by bakers and confectioners as a cheap form of milk. In some cities of Europe the milk powder is used for feeding infants. - American Cultivator.