Posted with permission of the transcriber, Ann Selchick. Geo SICKNESS & POVERTY IN Nineteenth Century Whitehaven. # 63. MODE FOR PRESERVING MILK FOR LONG VOYAGES. _______ As the season of the year is now arrived when hundreds of mechanics are induced to cross the Atlantic, in hope of bettering their fortune, and to those who carry young families with them, milk may be an important article of diet, perhaps the following extract from an old newspaper of the date of 1822 setting forth a simple and easy method of preserving it, may be of importance: - 'Provide a quantity of pint or quart bottles (new ones are perhaps best) they must be perfectly sweet and clean, and very dry before they are made use of. Instead of drawing the milk from the cow into the pail as usual, it is to be milked into the bottles. As soon as any of them are filled sufficiently, they should be immediately well corked with the very best cork, in order to keep out the external air, and fastened tight with packthread or wire, as the corks in the bottles contain cider generally are. Then on the bottom of an iron or copper boiler, spread a little straw; on that lay a row of bottles filled with milk, with some straw between them to prevent them from breaking, and so on, alternately, until the boiler has sufficient quantity in; then fill it up with cold water. Heat the water gradually until it begins to boil, and as soon as that is perceivable draw the fire. The bottles must remain undisturbed in the boiler until they are quite cool. Then take them out, and! afterwards pack them in hampers, either with straw or saw dust, and stow them in the coolest part of the ship. Milk preserved in this way has been to the West Indies and back, and at the end of that time was as sweet as when first drawn from the cow.' _______________