Cheese

While these analyses indicate a larger proportion of fat iu the ordinary skim-cheese, there was nevertheless a marked difference in quality in favor of the other; the latter was softer and more, salvy, and probably more digestible. It may be said, further, that the proportion of fat in skim-cheeties is not so constant as in whole milk cheese. Another sample of scalded skim milk and buttermilk cheese analyzed in the laboratory was found to contain twenty per cent. •of. fat. In the third important method of cheese making, as in the manufacture of skim-cheese, the butter fat is mostly removed from the milk by skimming; but while the milk is coagulating after the addition of the rennet, as much of a clean animal fat, manufactured from the beef's caul, is most intimately mixed with the forming curd as it will take up; the excess of oil floats on the surface after the coagulation is completed, and is skimmed off; a cheese is thus obtained which, as the analysis below shows, is some times richer in fat that the ordinary skim-cheese: For some unexplained reason the curd will not always take up the same amount of fat, so that its proportion in the cheese is variable; in the ease of other analyses of the same kind of cheese made in the laboratory, the proportion of.fat has Mr. L. B. Arnold, of New York, one of the best American authorities on cheese-making, in rela tion to the manner of making cheese and butter from the same milk, states the case as follows: There are different modes of managing milk in creameries. In some, the milk is set in the cheese-vats at night, and stirred and cooled as if the whole contents of the vats were to be made into cheese in the usual way. It is then left standing at 60°, as near as may be, through the night, for the cream to rise. In the morning the cream is taken off and made into butter, and the skim-milk is mixed with new milk that is brought to the factory in the morning, and made into cheese. In this class of creameries, there are two modes of working the cream into butter: One is to churn the cream as soon as it is taken from the vats, while it is sweet, and then put the buttermilk back into the vats with the milk, and work it into cheese. In this way the valuable properties of the milk are worked up very closely, leaving nothing but a very poor whey. The other mode is to set the cream aside till it becomes sour, before churning. In this case the butter milk cannot be worked into the cheese, and of course is cast out with the whey. In the former case the cheese always receives, a peculiar flavor from the buttermilk, which some people fancy, but which most people dislike, and hence it does not find favor in the general market. In the latter case, if the curd is cured rapidly and with out any cessation in the curing process, by expos ing it to a temperature too low, the cheese can scarcely be distinguished from whole-milk cheese; and where unprejudiced selections are made, it is often preferred for its better keeping quali ties and the purity of its flavor. The butter in the two cases differs as much as the cheese. When milk is set for the cream to rise, the odor peculiar to new milk escapes slowly, and as the cream soon coats over the surface of the milk, the odor, in attempting to rise, becomes entangled in the cream, and is hence carried with it into the churn. In the process of churning, much of the so-called animal odor escapes, but enough is always left in it to modify the fine flavor of the butter, and to serve as a ferment to work its early destruction. In the other case, where the cream is kept till it is sour, the acidity developed neutralizes the objectionable odor, and destroys it, and leaves the butter with a better flavor and in a better condition for long keeping, As the best of the cream rises first, the butter made from this partial skimming is of the finest quality, and usually sells at an advance above dairy butter, when equal skill is used in its production . The amount of butter taken from milk in this way is, perhaps, one pound from 100 pounds of milk, in the middle of the season, increasing to a larger percentage as the milk grows richer in the fall. By this practice, the pounds of butter and cheese counted together generally exceed the number of pounds of cheese that oould be made from an equal quantity of unskimmed milk. This dif ference may be accounted for from the waste that always occurs in making whole-milk cheese. by particles of cream escaping with the whey, and from the fact that more water is retained in a curd from skim-milk than in a curd from whole milk, when all other circumstances are the same. The purpose in this class of creameries is to make only so much butter as will allow of making a fine quality of cheese. In another class of creameries the purpose is quite different. It is to make all, or nearly all, the butter that can be made from the milk, and then to make a profit by converting the skim-milk into cheese instead of feeding it to swine. To accomplish this it is necessary to keep the milk sweet while it is stand ing for the cream to rise. Cold water is the agent employed. At a temperature of about 60° the lactic ferment hardly makes any perceptible advancement. Hence, if milk is kept at 60° or a little below, the cream rises readily, and the milk is preserved for a long time in a good condition for cheese-making. To effect this, a reservoir is made in the creamery, with mason work laid up With water-lime or cement, and kept constantly full, and of even temperature by a steady stream of water from a cool spring. The milk, as it comes to the creamery, is strained into a small vat, and thence drawn into tin pails, eighteen or twenty inches deep, and eight inches in diameter, and the pails then set into the reservoir, which just deep enough for the water to rise around the pails as high or a little higher than the sur face of the milk. This is found to be a better way of keeping milk than to spread it out in shallow vessels. The cream rises as quick, and some contend, quicker, in the deep as in the shallow dishes, and much leas surface is exposed to be injured by drying. The exposure is so little that the cream always remains soft and thin, requiring to be dipped off instead of skimmed. The time of letting it stand in these pails varies in different creameries. In some, the milk of one day is made into cheese the next, thus allow ing the morning's milk to stand twenty-four hours and the evening's milk twelve hours. In others it stands forty-eight and thirty-six hours. When the cream is taken off it is set away to sour, and at the proper time is churned by an application of steam, horse, or water power. It 39 a singular fact, that after all the trials made with the great variety of churns that are being continually introduced, the creameries and the best butter-makers all fall back upon the old dash-churn, as the best, both for quality of pro duct and convenience. Patent churns are in bad repute with the creameries. When the butter is taken from the churns, it is thoroughly washed in cool water before salting. However much washing butter may be condemned by others, the practice works well in the creameries. The idea that water washes out the fine aroma of the butter seems to be more fanciful than real, and certainly much less injury is done to the texture by washing out the buttermilk than by working it out. The working is usually done on an inclined slab, with a lever rounded on one side and held in its place by a universal joint at the lower end of the slab. (See article on Butter.) The salt ing is generally lighter than in farm dairies, being usually only one pound of salt for twenty pounds of butter, and the inclined slab is used in working it in. The butter made at the creameries is gener allyof superior quality, and commands a high price, and is beginning to exert an influence in the market. Creameries are educating the public taste to a higher standard. Though much may be said of the excellence of creamery butter, little can be said of the excellence of cheese made in this class of factories. Though rich in valuable nutri ment—that might under more favorable circum stances, be at least palatable food—the shape in which it now usually goes to market, rates it very properly with the poorest class of human food. It is so dry, and hard, and insipid, and indigestible as hardly to be reckoned as a whole some means of sustaining life. It is little else than dried curd. It cures so slowly and dries out so quickly that the cheesing process is arrest ed before it is hardly begun. There is a wide field open for improvement in the manufacture of 'skim-milk cheese. The valuable flesh-forming material with which it abounds ought to be, and will ere long be, presented in more attractive forms. I have no expectation that a fancy article will be made from thoroughly skimmed milk, but am confident that a cheese much more palatable and wholesome than those now made in creameries, can be made from milk in the con dition in which it is there manufactured. The most that is needed is to make the cheesing pro cess as complete as in curing other cheese. When dairymen shall have become familiar with the fact that the cheesing process is but the result of the continued action of the rennet upon the coagu lum it has formed from the milk. they will find some efficient way of keeping up that action, however much it may he retarded by depriving the curd of the stimulating influence afforded by the fatty mat ter in the milk. When the manufacture and cur ing of skim-milk cheese shall be adapted to the altered condition of the milk, its value will be greatly enhanced. But even now the dried-curd, if I may so cal! it, makes a better return than can be made by feeding the milk to pigs and calves. It requires just about four times as much milk to make a pound of pork or veal, as it does to Make a pound of skim-cheese, while there is but little difference in their market value. The quality of milk varies so much, that no precise results can be stated when it is worked up in the different ways of manufacturing it, but they will not vary much from the following: 10,000 pounds of milk, of average quality, will make 1,025 pounds whole milk cheese. The same quantity, if partially skimmed, will make 100 pounds butter and 975 pounds cheese, that will scarcely differ from whole-milk cheese. If deeper skimmed, it will mike 250 to 300 pounds butter and 700 to 775 pounds skim-cheese; or, if thoroughly skimmed, it would make 350 to 370 pounds butter and 600 to 650 pounds skim-cheese. The cheese will vary considerably with the varying amount of milk taken off with the cream. If the whole-milk cheese be worth fifteen cents per pound, the partially skimmed will be fourteen to fourteen and a half cents, the deeper skimming nine cents, and the full skimming seven cents per pound. The butter in each case will keep with the top of the market as it fluctuates. The cost of making the cheese and getting it ready for market is two cents per pound, and the butter five cents. From the foregoing facts, the reader may gather at least a general idea of the modus operandi in cream eries, and of the results produced. They give 'a little greater return than making cheese only from the milk, but, considering the greater out lay in building and apparatus, the results finan cially do not •differ very widely. Their general effect upon the markets is to raise the standard of American cheese. In relation to the manu facture of cheese in various countries, and the means used, Mr. F. B Thurber, of New York city, presented much valuable and condensed inform Won to the New York State Dairymen's Association at the Session of 1878. This was • collected during a visit to the late French Inter national Exposition. It is as follows: The French Roquefort cheese has a reputation which extends as far back into dim antiquity as the time of Pliny, who mentions it in one of his works. It is made from the milk of sheep and goats, prin cipally from that of the former. In 1866, 250, 000 out of a flock of 400,000 supplied the milk for 7,150,000 pounds of cheese. The very fertile pasturage of these animals is an immense plain, eight or ten leagues across. In the evening, after the return of the sheep from the pastures, they are allowed to rest for an hour before being milked, after which they will yield the milk more readily, and are milked as rapidly as pos sible. From May first to the middle of July the yield of milk is the largest, and each animal gives nearly one pint. After the shearing the flow of milk diminishes. The Larzac breed of sheep, from the milk of which the Roquefort cheese is made, have unusually large udders; this is attrib uted to the practice of beating them with the hand as soon as the milk ceases to flow, in imitation of the manner in which the young lamb seeks to get more milk. The evening's milk is heated almost to boiling, and set aside. In the morning it is skimmed, heated to 98°, and mixed with the morning's milk for coagulation, After the curd has been divided, by stirring with a paddle, and the whey drawn off, it is well kneaded with the hands, and pressed, in layers, into moulds with perforated bottoms, and usually a thin layer of mouldy bread is put in between each layer of curd, the object being to hasten the ripening of the cheese by supplying the germs of the green mould peculiar to cheese, the technical name of which is Patio,ilium erriztoceum. The bread for this purpose is usually made before Chriatma, of equal parts of summer and winter barley, with considerable sour dough, and a little vine gar. The mouldiness is not sufficiently develop ed in it until three months, unless hastened by warmth. When mouldy enough it is ground, sifted, moistened with water, and kept from con tact with the air until wanted. The curd re mains in the moulds under pressure three or four days, after which the cheeses are wrapped in dry linen and put to dry. They remain in the dry ing-room three or four days, after which they are • taken to the village of Roquefort, where the ripening is completed in a very peculiar manner. This village is situated in a deep, narrow gorge, with high precipitous walls of limestone rock that overhang the houses, and often immense boulders may be seen between the houses, which, have sometime fallen from the rock above. This wall of rock is filled with caves and fissures, from which currents of cold air issue without cessa tion, and it is in vaults constructed in these fissures that the ripening of the Roquefort cheese is carried on; and it would appear that the pecu liar characteristics and excellent quality- of this singular kind of cheese can only be obtained by ripening in these vaults. The currents of air are quite cold, so that even in the hottest weather their temperature is kept at from 41° to 44'. Those vaults which are so situated that the cur rents of air flow from south to north, are believ ed to yield the best cheese, and they are conse quently held in the highest estimation. The cheeses are brought in at all seasons by the shep herds, and are bought by the proprietors of the vaults; sometimes these purchases are made several years in advance, so sure is the de mand for the cheese when ripened. They are carefully examined when brought in, and classifi ed according to merit. Salt is then sprinkled over them, and they are piled up one on another for two or three days; then the piles are taken down, the salt and brine rubbed in, piled up again, and left for a week. They are then scraped and pared, pricked through and through with needles driven by machinery in order to accelerate the moulding, and after this they are left in piles again for fifteen days, till they become dry and firm in texture, and begin to be covered with mould; this mould by its brilliant whiteness, its length—the filaments being sometimes five or six inches long—its succulency, and the thickness of its coating, indicates the quality of the cheese on which it grows, and the suitability of the vaults in which the ripening is perfected. An other of the celebrated cheeses made on the Con tinent of Europe, and which is exported to a considerable extent, is the Swiss Gruy re; but it is now extensively manufactured in France and Germany, and also to some extent in other coun tries. This is made mostly in huts, called eh& lets, high up among the Alps, in the time during which the pastures on the mountain sides are accessible and the huts habitable, say from the melting of the snow in May to the end of Sep tember, when men and animals descend for the winter into the sheltered valleys thousands of feet below. The chalets are located in the midst of the mountain pastures, on a spot safe from ava lanches, and generally near to a small spring or pond of water when such are available. Pro visiuns from the valleys are carried up weekly to the chalets, and it is under such difficult and romanti.; circumstances that a cheese is made which for hundreds of years has been considered almost, if not quite, the best on' the Continent. The milk, partly skimmed, or not, according to `the ouaiity of cheese desired to be made, is put in a great kettle and swung on a crane over a gentle fire, where it is allowed to attain a tem perature of 77° F., when the kettle is swung off the fire and rennet is added to the milk. When coagulation has advanced far enough, the curd is out into as fine pieces as is practicable with the large wooden knife which is used for the purpose. The kettle is then swung over the fire and the curd is taken up in small quantities in a por ringer and poured back through the fingers, whereby it is still more finely divided. Great im portance is attached to this manipulation in the division of the curd, in order that each particle may be fully, exposed to the action of the heat in the cooking process which ensues up to a point when a temperature of 90° has been attained. The kettle then is immediately swung off the fire, and the waste of curd and whey stirred for some fifteen minutes longer; and if the cooking has been properly performed the particles of curd have the appearance of bursted grains of rice, swimming in the whey. The curd is then col lected in a cloth, and great care is taken to expel all the whey The salting of the cheese is also considered a delicate and important process. The salt is rubbed from time to time on the outside of the cheese, care being taken to discern when enough shall have been absorbed. One authority states that, in the manufacture of the best cheese, the salting process is sometimes continued for one or two years, at intervals of a week. The Gruyslre cheeses are commonly three feet in diameter and weigh over one hundred pounds A successful cheese of this kind is like a soft, yellow paste, which melts in the mouth, and it is filled with cavities about the size of a pea, one or two, say, in each square inch of cheese. The small, round Dutch cheeses, known to the trade as Edam, are called after the place of that name, a small but flourishing town near Amsterdam, in Holland; in size and shape resembling cannon balls, and when dry nearly as hard. They have perhaps been made more widely known by the story which has passed into the literature of the age, that during the siege of one of the cities of Holland, the supply of cannon balls gave out, and Edam cheeses were used as a substitute. Perhaps more important to American dairymen will be the methods pursued by English dairymen in making the principal varieties of cheese consumed in that great cheese-consuming country. The more important varieties are Cheddar, Cheshire and Stilton, and the following concise yet comprehensive deScription of the most approved processes of manufacture by Mr. John Chalmers Morton, as follows: The Cheddar cheese shall be described as it was carried on upon the farm of the late Mr. Hard ing, of Marksbury, Somersetshire, who was one of the best makers in England, and who did good work for cheese-making in Ayrshire and other counties and districts which he and Mrs. Hard ingvisited on the invitation of Agricultural Societies and others, for the purpose of giving instruction in the manufacture of this kind of cheese. The morning's and evening's milk are together brought to a temperature of about 80° Fahr. If the night has been warm, a temperature of 78° will give as great effectiveness to a given quantity of rennett as one of 82° or 84° would give if the milk had been at a lower temperature for some hours of a cold night. The evening's milk, having been placed in shallow vessels during the night to cool, and having been stirred at intervals during the evening is skimmed in the morning, and the cream, with a portion of the milk, is heated up to 100° by floating it in tin vessels on the boiler. The whole of it is then poured through a proper sieve into the tub—into which the morning's milk is being also strained as it arrives—so as to raise the whole, as I have said, to from 78° to 82° Fahr. This tub may be a large tin vessel, capable of holding one hundred and fifty gallons, and provided with a false bottom and sides, enabling hot or cold water to be passed under and around its contents. The rennet, made from two or three dozen veils, in as many quarts of salt water, and allowed to stand three weeks, is added—half a pint to one hundred gallons—and the curd sets in about an hour. The small yells (rennets) of calves, which are killed at a week old, are preferred, and they should be eighteen months old before use. The curd is slowly cut with a single long blade to and fro throughout its depth, in lines forming a four inch mesh upon the surface, and the whole mass is gently turned over from the bottom with a skimming dish and the hand. The whole is then again worked throughout with a shovel breaker— a four-fingered paddle, with wires across the fingers—great care being taken to do it gently, so that the whey shall not become too white. The curd is thus broken up into pieces not much larger than peas, and at least half an hour is taken in the process Hot water is then let into the space around and below the cheese tub, and the whole is raised to 100° Fahr. : and this, too, done gradually, so as to raise the whole by de grees, not heating any portion to excess. This also takes half an hour. The hot water is then drawn off, and the curd is stirred by the hand and a skimming dish for another half hour in the midst of its hot whey, being at length reduced to a mass of separate bits the size of small peas. The whey, after settling for half an hour, is then removed—ladled, syphoned, or drawn—to its vat, where it stands about six inches deep, and is skimmed next day, yielding a butter, which should not, exceed in quantity six to eight ounces per cow per week The curd stands half an hour after the whey is drawn off,. and it is then

cut into four or five pieces and turned over and left for half an hour, after which it is again cut and left for a quarter of an hour. After this, according to Mr. Harding, it should be in the slightest degree acid to the taste. If allowed to become too acid, it will not press into a solid, well-shaped cheese, but will be apt to sink abroad misshapen. It is now torn into pieces by hand, and left to cool; and thereafter it is packed ii successive thin layers in the vat—a cylindrical or wooden vessel twelve inches or more wide and twelve inches deep—whence, after being pressed for half an hour, it is taken out (it is then proba bly midday), and broken up by hand, and allowed again to cool. Then, when cool, and sour, and dry, and tough enough (all this, of course, being left to the judgment of the maker), it is ground up in the curd mill; two pounds of salt are added to the cwt. of curd, and the whole is allowed to cool, and, as soon as cold, it is put in the vat and taken to the press. It is then probably 3 p. m. The pressure on the cheese may be 1,800 to 2,000 pounds. The cloth is changed next morning. A calico coating is laced on it the second day, and on the third day the cheese may be taken from the press, placed in the cheese-room, band aged, and turned daily, and afterwards less frequently. The cheese-room should be kept at nearly 65° Fahr. The cheese will not be ready for sale for three months. The • process lasts nearly all the day, but it is believed to produce the best cheese in the world; and its use is every where extending. Taking its name from a single parish, it now prevails all over North Somerset shire, and is gradually extending into Wiltshire. Many dairies in Gloucestershire adopt the system; some of its characteristic details are followed in Cheshire; and it is well known in Lancashire, Ayrshire, and Galloway. The Cheddar cheese is made of various sizes, generally twelve inches wide and a foot high, but sometimes larger in both dimensions, and from seventy to one hun dred and twenty pounds in weight; the object being to make all the milk of one day on a farm of thirty or forty cows into a single cheese. Cheshire cheese, like the Cheddar, is made only once a day. The evening's milk is placed, not more than six or seven inches deep, in tin vessels to cool during the night, on the floor of the dairy; it is skimmed in the morning, and a certain portion kept for butter—in early summer only enough, perhaps, for the use of the house, but in autumn more, and in some dairies at length nearly all the morning's cream is thus taken for chuzning. The skimmed cream, with a portion of milk, is heated up to 130° of Fehr. by floating the tins which hold it on the boiler—suflicient quantity being taken to raise the whole of the evening's and morning's milk together to 90° or thereabouts. The rennet is made the day before it is used; twelve or fourteen square inches of veil, standing in a pint of salt water, kept in a warm place, making rennet enough for one hun dred gallons of milk. The Irish yell is used, as it is obtained from very young and wholly milk fed calves. The curd is set about fifty minutes; it is then cut with the usual curd-breaker, a sieve shaped cutter, very slowly. The wheyis syphoned, pumped, or lifted out as soon as possible; but before it is all removed a portion is (on some farms where the Cheddar system is followed) heated and returned to the tub, and the curd is left in this hot whey for half an hour. The whey is then drained away and the curd is left to get firm. When firm enough to stand on the hand in cubes of about a pound weight—this is an intelligible indication—without breaking asunder, it is lifted out on the drainer (a false bottom of rods), in a long tub with a stop-cock to it, and there left covered up for forty-five minutes, after which it is broken up and well mixed by hand with three and a half to four and a half pounds of salt per cwt. (112 pounds.) It is then allowed to stand with a light weight upon it for about three-quarters of an hour longer, and is turned over once or twice during the time, be ing cut for the purpose into squares with the knife. It is then passed twice through the curd mill, and at length put into the vat, a cloth be ing pressed first into the place by a tin hoop, and the salted curd being packed gently by hand within it. The vats will hold a cheese of seven ty or eighty, up to 100 pounds; and tin hoops, placed within them, are used to eke them out, and give capacity for a larger quantity of curd, if necessary. After standing in the vat, with a weight upon it, from one to two hours, accord ing to the state of the weather, it is turned over and put, still in its vat, into an oven—a warm chamber in or near the brickwork of the dairy chimney—where it remains at a temperature of 90° to 100° during the night. Both when in in the press and here the cheese is skewered, skewers being thrust into it through holes in the' vat, and every now and then withdrawn, so as to facilitate the drainage of the whey. The cheese is taken out of the vat next morning and turned upside down in a fresh cloth. It is in the press three days, and it is turned in the press twice a day, being dry-clothed each time. It is then taken out, bandaged, and removed to the cheese-safe. In some dairies all skeivering is dis pensed with, and no pressure is used at the- time of making, nor for two days afterwards; but the whey is allowed to run out of its own accord. Cheese manufactured in this way requires from five to seven days in drying, but afterward& matures more quickly for market. The cheese varies considerably in quality throughout the year, the earlier make of March and April being considerably less valuable than that of summer and early autumn. Some of this varying .quali ty is owing to the quality of the milk, the cows being house-fed; but more of it is, in all proba bility, owing to the necessity of holding a por tion of curd over from day to day, when the quantity is insufficient to make either_ one, or it may be two, full sized cheeses daily. In such cases it is common to make one full-sized cheese, and hold the remainder of the curd over till the next day, keeping it wrapped up on the drainer or pan, and grinding it up in the curd-mill along with the curd of the next morning. Stilton cheese, manufactured chiefly in Leicestershire, is made from milk enriched by the addition. of cream, and the curd hardens into cheese without pressure. The cream of the night's milk is added to the new milk of -the morning, and the rennet is mixed with it when the whole is at the temperature of 84 deg. Fahr., enough being used to make it coagulate in an hour and a half. If it comes sooner it will be too tough. The curd is not drained of its whey in the ordinary manner, but is removed in slices with a skimming dish, and placed upon a canvas strainer, the ends of which, when it is full, are tied up, and the whey gently pressed out. It is then allowed to drain until next morning, when it is removed and placed in a cool dish, whence, cut in thin slices, it is put up in a hoop msde of tin, about ten inches high and eight inches across, and pierced with holes. A clean cloth is placed within the hoop, and as the slices are laid in, a small quan tity of salt is sprinkled between the alternate layers. It remains in the hoop, covered up, but without pressure. Next day She cheese is taken out of the hoop and clean cloths are applied; after which it is inverted and replaced, and pricked with skewers through the holes of the tin hoop, to facilitate the extraction of the whey. In four or five days the curd becomes firm. Dur ing this, consolidating process the cheeses are kept in a place where the temperature can be maintained at about 100°. When the cheese has become firm enough, it is pared smooth and firmly bound up in a strong fillet of canvas, wrapping it around several times. The binders and cloths are removed every morning; cracks are filled up with curd; and ultimately the coat becomes hardened, and the cheese is removed to the drying room. Dr. Augustus Voelcker, F. R. S., consulting chemist to the Royal Agri cultural Society of England, a good authority, who has contributed much to the chemistry of cheese making, has contributed a paper, for English cheese-makers, from which we extract the following interesting and valuable matter to cheese-makers everywhere: Attention has been directed to the flavor of milk, and its liability to turn sour when it is produced from rank, imma ture herbage. Milk not only differs naturally in regard to flavor and keeping quality, but it is likewise prone to absorb bad smells when it is kept in ill-ventilated or damp places, or in close proximity to pig-stys, water-closets, or under ground house-drains. Milk thus tainted imparts a bad flavor to cheese, and even may spoil it altogether. Too much attention, therefore, can not be bestowed upon the treatment of milk before it is admitted into the cheese-tub. It is a matter of great importance to cool down milk as rapidly as possible after milking, and to get rid by this means of the peculiar animal flavor which characterizes newly-drawn milk. This especial ly is needful when the evening's milk is kept until next day, and made into cheese with the morning's milk. In many dairies a portion of the cream is removed from the milk, and the partially skimmed evening's milk being added to the new morning's milk, the cream will be equal ly distributed in the milk. But when the even ing's milk is not skimmed and whole milk-cheese is made, care should be taken to amalgamate thoroughly the cream with the milk by gentle agitation before rennet is added. I need hardly say that the milk must be carefully strained through a cloth before it is placed into the cheese tub, and that the utmost attention must be paid to scrupulous cleanliness, and the avoidance of anything calculated to taint the milk. In good dairies no utensil is allowed to remain for a mo ment in an unclean condition; as soon as it is empty it is rinsed out with clean water—if neces sary, scrubbed—and finally scalded with boiling hot water. Cleanliness, indeed, may be said to be the first qualification of a good dairy-maid. With regard to the materials of which the pails and cheese-tubs are made, metallic vessels appear to be preferable to wooden ones, for tin pails, and tin or brass cheese-tubs can be more easily kept clean, and, unlike a porous material such as wood, they do not absorb milk, which will generate acidity, or taint milk that is placed into wooden tubs or pails. Some people maintain that milk which has acquired a faint degree of acidity is none the worse for cheese-making. This may be so; nevertheless, I believe that the fresher milk is, and the less its natural condition has been disturbed, and the sweeter, or neutral, the state of the cheese, and of the whey also, is preserved throughout the process of cheese-mak ing, the finer the flavor of the cheese—if the operation has, however, been well conducted, and the cheese been ripened properly. I have seen some of the finest Cheddar cheese made from sweet milk under conditions which allowed the whey to run off in a perfectly neutral state, so that I could not detect the faintest trace of acid by delicate litmus paper. There is no ne cessity whatever to harden the curd after its sep aration from a portion of the whey by scalding it with sour whey, nor is there any necessity for keeping the curd in the whey until it has turned slightly sour. The beneficial effect which is produced on the texture of the curd by scalding it with sour whey, or allowing it to remain in the whey until it becomes slightly acid, and at the same time raising somewhat the temperature of the contents of the tub, is due entirely to the increase in temperature, and has nothiug to do with the acid of the whey. This beneficial change may therefore be as well effected by steam or hot water as by heated sour whey, or rather I should say, is preferable to introducing your whey into the manufacture of cheese, and to conduct the process of separation of the curd from the milk, and its subsequent con solidation into a state fit to go into the presses, by gradually raising the temperature either by warm water or steam in a manner whereby a minimum amount of acidity is generated in whey. Curd, in a practical sense. or more strictly speaking, the mixture of caseine and butter which cheese makers call curd, is a very peculiar and delicate substance, which is greatly affected by the temperature to which it is ex posed. As curd at different temperatures has a direct bearing on the practice of cheese making, it will not be out of place to refer briefly to some of them. To new milk, cooled down to 60° Farenheit, was added a very large excess of ren net. It took three hours to complete the prepar ation of the milk into curd and whey. The curd was very tender, and the whey could not be properly separated from it. Milk at 65°, on addition of rennet, curdled in two hours; but the curd as before remained tender, even after long standing. At 70° to 72°, it only took from half an hour to three-quarters of an hour to curdle the milk, and the curd now separated in a more compact condition. The process was more expeditious and the curd in better condition when the temperature ranged from 80° to 84°. At 90°, the rennet curdled the milk in twenty minutes, and at 100°, an excess of rennet curdled the milk in about a quarter of an hour, separa ting the curd in a somewhat too close condition. By heating the whey and curd to 130°, the curd gets so soft that it runs like toasted cheese, and becomes quite hard on cooling. These experi ments clearly show that the limits of temperature between which curd can be improved or become deteriorated in texture are not very wide. Too low a temperature—that is, a temperature under 75°—keeps the curd too tender, and renders it difficult to separate a sufficient amount of whey from the curd to allow the latter to be pressed into cheese that will ripen properly without leaving or acquiring a strong undesirable flavor. On the other hand, too high a temperature—that is, a temperature exceeding 100°—makes the curd unduly hard, in consequence of which the cheese does not acquire in the store-room the mellow texture and the fine flavor which the curd assumes in keeping and ripening when a less elevated temperature is applied in its man ufacture. The exact temperature to be adopted depends upon the description of cheese which is desired to be produced. When thin cheese has to be made, a temperature ranging from 72° to 75° is sufficiently high before the rennet is added to the milk, and this temperature should be maintained throughout the process by the addi tion of warm water, or it may with convenience be increased 5° and raised finally to 80°, but not higher. On the other hand, if the object of the cheese maker is to produce thick Cheddar cheese, the temperature of the milk may with great advan tage be raised to 80° to 84° before the addition of rennet. Sufficient rennet should be added to effect a complete separation of the milk into curd and whey in about three-quarters of an hour. The curd may then be cut into large slices, and a portion of the clear whey be run off; after which the temperature of the whole contents of the cheese-tub may be raised gradually, whilst the curd by degrees is broken into small bits, to about 95°, or at most 100°. Cheddar cheese is apt to get hard and dry, and not to ripen properly, when it is made at too high a tem perature. On no account should the temperature rise above 100°: and if kept rather below 100°— say at about 95° to 97°--the cheese will turn out all the better, if the .curd be carefully broken up, and put into the presses in a perfectly uniform condition. The amount of water which is left in the curd when it is ready to go into the cheese presses, is much larger, and ought to be larger, when thin cheese, made at about 72 to 75° is made than in the making of thick Cheddar cheese, in which a higher temperature is usually raised. In five specimens of , curd, ready to go into the vat, and prodq,ced according to the custom of Gloucestershire and Wiltshire dairy farmers, the following proportions of water were found: First specimen, percentage of water 59.67; second, 56.93; third, 53.40; fourth., 52.80; fifth, 50.01; whilst four specimens of curd ready to go into the vat, and produced according to the Cheddar plan, contained: First specimen, percentage of water 41.53 ; second, 41.49; third, 38.20; fourth, 35.80. In the daries in which these curds were produced no thermometer was used to ascertain whether the temperature was such as to secure fairly uniform products from day to day, and hence it is not surprising that one day a much harder curd containing less water and better whey, which the water represents, than another day, when a more tender curd containing more whey was obtained. With reference to the first five named curds the best cheese was made from the curd in which was found fifty per cent of water—that is, the lowest proportion of the five samples. On the other hand, the curd in which was 35.80 per cent. of water, and which was evidently scalded at too high a temperature, a hard cheese of very inferior quality was pro duced. Too high a temperature not only makes the curd too close and hard, but it is liable also to melt out some of the butter, which passes into the whey, rendering it more or less milky. When the curd is properly managed the whey is almost clear, and scarcely any fatty matter passes into It. Curd requires to be handled very gently, more particularly at first, when it is tender and voluminous. As a rule, the curd is broken up in far to great a hurry. In consequence of care less treatment or heedlessness some of the curd is broken into fragments so small that they pass into the whey when it is drawn off, whilst other portions are not sufficiently broken up and remain soft. The result is, that the curd is not uniform in texture when it is put into the vat, and that in consequence less cheese, and of inferior quality, is produced than when the curd is first cut very gently into large slices, and then broken up by degrees into small fragments perfectly uni form as regards texture. Salting the curd is a simple operation; nevertheless care and judgment is necessary in properly salting curd. A certain amount of salt is used in making cheese, not so much for the purpose of imparting to the curd a saline taste, as for keeping in check the fermenta tion to which it, like most animal matters, is sub ject. If no salt were used the cheese would enter too readily into putrefactive fermentation, and acquire a very strong taste and smell. When an extra quantity of cream is put to the milk, it not necessary, or even desirable, to salt the curd much; we might even do without salt altogether, for the large amount of fat (butter) in extra rich cheese, such as Chilton and Cream Cheddar, sufficiently preserves the curd. If salt is employed in excess the cheese does not ripen properly, nor acquire that fine flavor which depends upon the fermentation proceding in a sufficiently active degree. The saline taste of old cheese is not due to the common salt used in its preparation— at least not to any extent—but to certain ammo niacal salts which are generated during the ripen- , ' ing process from the elements of caseiue and fatty matters, or the butter in the cheese. These ammoniacal salts have a strongly saline, and at the same time aromatic taste and smell, and as they are products generated in the ripening pro cess of the cheese, and not originally present in curd, we have at once an explanation of the fact that quite young cheese is insipid, and old cheese tastes strongly saline. In over-salted cheese the process of ripening sustains too great a check, salt being a powerful antiseptic substance, and hence over-salted cheese, after having been kept for six or eight months, has not nearly so saline a taste as under-salted cheese which has been kept for an equal length of time. For most cases one and a half pounds of salt is a sufficient quantity per 112 pounds of cheese, and when rich cheeses are made one pound will suffice. The salt used in dairies should be of the finest description, and should be sifted evenly through a fine sieve on the curd, after the latter has been passed through a curd mill, and thinly spread in shallow layers to cool. This plan of spreading the salt saves a great deal of labor, and is greatly to be preferred to the sys tem of pickling the cheese in brine after it has been made, or of rubbing in salt. When salt is applied, either in solution or by rubbing it into the cheese after it has been in the presses, the out aide is apt to get hard and close up too much. It is, n3f course, desirable to give the cheese a good and firm coat, but, at the same time, the pores should not be too much closed, for, if this is the case, the superabundance of moisture in newly made cheese can not escape with sufficient readi ness. Thin cheeses may be salted after they have been in the press, inasmuch as they present a much larger evaporating surface than thick i cheeses, in the making of which the curd is, and for good reasons, salted before it is placed in the vat.

As showing the magnitude of the cheese interest in the United States, from data in the office of the Chief of the Bureau of Statistics at Washing ton, we find that the exports of cheese for the year 1879 amounted to 141,654,474 pounds, worth $12,597,968. The production of cheese in the United States, is estimated at about 350,000,000 pounds per annum. Great Britain with a pop ulation of 32,000,000, consumes about 260,000.000 pounds annually, while the United States with a population of 50,000,000, consumes only about 200,000,000 per annum. The production of cheese is a great and growing industry, especially in the West, where flush pastures, and cheap grain allow the product to be manufactured at a minimum cost. Nevertheless, so constantly does the demand increase, that it is found difficult to meet this increasing demand, for cheese of first quality. Hence, this always finds an early sale, while skim-milk cheese and that adulterated with oleomargarine, or cheese badly cured, remains a drug' on the market, and has tended much to depreciate all brands of Ameri can cheese in foreign markets, especially that of Great Britain. As showing something of this it Inv be stated, that although we exported 17,870,738 pounds of cheese more during 1879 than in 1878, we received $1,523,561 less for the product than in the previous year. (See also articles Creamery, Dairying, Dairy Fixtures, and Milk.)