SECRETARY'S REPORT. 105 



sufficient, the cheese cannot be handled so easily while green, it 

 will be liable to leak whey, and to huff or swell, or tip sidewise ; it 

 will shrink too much, and will be longer in curing than if cooked 

 to the proper degree. If the curd be over-cooked, the cheese will 

 be proportionally hard and dry. When the curd reaches the de- 

 sired condition, the strainer is inserted at the corner of the vat, the 

 cork withdrawn, and the whey rapidly runs off, and may be con- 

 ducted by a pipe beneath the floor to the whey tub in another 

 building. The vat is then tipped up a little, the curd drawn to the 

 higher end, and when sufiHciently drained the salt is added and 

 evenly worked in through the whole mass. It is then to be dipped 

 into the hoop, in which a cloth is first laid, and put to press. It is 

 well that the pressure be gentle at first, but in a few minutes it 

 may be very considerably increased, say to half a ton or more if a 

 large one ; for curd properly cooked, is not only already rid of much 

 of the whey which by other methods of manufacture must be 

 worked out, pressed out and dried out ; but the curd and butter 

 are so thoroughly combined and compacted together that compara- 

 tively little danger exists of loss by reason of the escape of either 

 with the whey. The separation of the whey in well-cooked curd 

 is so complete that little remains for the press to accomplish be- 

 yond the removal of the moisture which adheres to the outside of 

 the particles and to compact them together into the form desired 

 for the cheese. The curd retains all its natural richness and the 

 cheese has a sweet nutty, new milk flavor peculiar to this process. 

 The cooking seems also to be equivalent to a portion of the curing 

 process needful when made by other methods ; for we find when 

 made from curd properly cooked, cheese will ripen with much 

 greater facility than by the modes formerly in use. 



After remaining in the press for two or three hours it may be 

 removed, the edges pared smoothly, and a bandage of the proper 

 length and width, first sewed together at the ends, is applied. 

 The top and bottom of the bandage are most neatly drawn together 

 and kept in place by a string run in the edges which lap an inch 

 or two over the sides. The cheese is then to be returned to the 

 press, where it may remain under heavy pressure until the curd of 

 the next day is ready to take its place in the cheese hoop. It is 

 then taken out and removed to the curing room, where it should be 

 rubbed over with hot whey butter, and for thirty days or more turned 

 daily and oiled every other day or as often as necessary. 



