SECRETARY'S REPORT. 123 



"The whey vats will be a long distance from the buildings, for 

 we believe the milk will absorb any impurities of the atmosphere. 

 Hog peus will be dispensed with entirely, for past experience 

 proves to us that if cheese is properly made there is not enough 

 nourishment left in the whey to make it profitable for pork raising." 



The accompanying cut shows the ground plan and buildings of 

 the factory near Herkimer, Herkimer county, under the supervis- 

 ion of Mr. H. Farington, who for many years has been widely 

 known throughout the dairy region as an extensive cheese dealer. 

 The cut shows the bank alluded to, where the teams deliver the 

 milk. The floor of the manufacturing room should incline a little 

 towards the centre, so that, in cleansing, the slops may be dis- 

 charged into the creek. 



The Herkimer factory has facilities for manufacturing annually 

 300,000 pounds of cheese. The manufacturing room is 28 by 48 

 feet, and the curing house 28 by 100 feet, and two stories high. 

 There are four tin cheese vats, placed inside an equal number of 

 wooden vats, the milk in which is heated by steam ; each vat holds 

 four hundred gallons. 



The ice house has capacity for holding one hundred tons of ice. 

 The cheese at this factory is pressed in a twenty-three inch hoop, 

 and will weigh one hundred and fifty pounds each. This factory 

 is built on the improved plan, and all the internal arrangement 

 quite convenient. 



In most cheese factories steam is used for warming the milk and 

 cooking the curd. In some there is merely a steam boiler set in 

 brick work and provided with pipes, while in others there is an 

 engine also, usually of from four to eight horse power. The milk 

 as received is conducted into vats of from four hundred to six hun- 

 dred gallons capacity, each. These vats are made double, the 

 inner one being of tin and the outer one of wood, with a space 

 between of about two inches. This space is for the reception of 

 water, and is provided with pipes conducting from the boiler, and 

 so arranged that when steam is let on it may be distributed through 

 the water as evenly as possible. 



It is generally supposed to be cheaper thus to use steam, than 

 to employ an apparatus similar to that described in the report for 

 1862, as the most desirable for family use ; and very probably it 

 may be cheaper at the outset, but if Ralph's Oneida Vat and Heater 

 are employed, (which, in some important respects, appears to me 



