Effects of Alkali Water on Dairy Products

Alkali water, or water containing an unusual amount of soluble minerals, especially sulphates, is chiefly found in arid and semi-arid regions. Since the minerals are in the soil, the amount and kind of minerals contained in the water varies according to kind of soil lay of land, kind of cultivation, manured or unmanured, drained or undrained, and climatic conditions. The amount and kind of minerals found in the examined and analyzed water from the different wells may be found in Tables I and II. Many inquiries were received from localities in which alkali water is most prevalent relative to the effects of its use in connection with the varied phases of the dairy industry. Experience of certain dairy farmers indicated that the milk from cows drinking alkali water did not coagulate normally for cheese-making purposes when rennet was added. Others refuse to let the cows drink it, fearing that the cows and the milk might be injured, while other dairy farmers thought that washing the butter in alkali water would affect the butter. At the National Creamery Butter Makers Convention held in St. Louis in 1907, a creamery operator from an adjoining state asked the question, Is it injurious to wash butter in alkali butter? In this large audience composed of practical and scientific dairy and creamery men, no one was able to give a definite answer