The lactic acid bacillus, always present in unboiled milk (to which the souring of milk is due), is easily destroyed by heat; but the bacillus mesentericus, often found in it, forms spores, which are not destroyed by ordinary boiling, and germinate when the milk is kept at a moderately warm temperature, producing a brisk fermentation whereby a large volume of gas is liberated.
The time varies for the unboiled salts from twelve hours to three or four weeks, the larger crystals being allowed a longer time to form, and the smaller ones being formed more quickly.
The salt is " drawn " from the pan and placed (in the case of boiled salts) in small conical baskets hung round the pan to drain, and thence moulded in square boxes and afterwards stove-dried, or (in case of unboiled salts) " drawn " in a heap on to the " hurdles," on which it drains, and thence is carried to the store.
Horses doing slow or other than " upper ten " work may have oats crushed, not ground, and a variety of additions made to the oats which are usually the basis of the feed - for example, a few old crushed beans, a little linseed meal, ground linseed cake or about a wine-glassful of unboiled linseed oil.
Of the unboiled salts the first two, corresponding to the Fr.