102 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



please a few lemons sliced, or a little spice, and keep in a glass 

 demijohn or stone jar. Do not fail to have an excess of salt, so that 

 some will remain undissolved and keep in a cool place. If a smaller 

 quantity be wanted, take a half or a fourth of several skins and 

 prepare in the same way ; as by this method subsequent parcels 

 can be made of nearly or exactly the same strength ; while if a 

 whole one be used at one time and another the next, the strength 

 of the liquid may be very unequal. If good skins are used, and a 

 gallon of liquid be made from each, the probability is that a pint of 

 it will suffice to curdle fifty or sixty gallons of milk in forty to fifty 

 minutes, which is the proper time to be occupied in the coagulation. 

 After a few trials, the amount necessary can be determined very 

 accurately. Too much caution cannot be exercised to have the 

 rennet clean and good. Properly prepared, the liquid is bright, 

 clear and efiective ; perfectly free from any disagreeable smell or 

 taste, and will keep in perfect order through the season. If faulty 

 in any respect, the cheese will suffer accordingly. " Tainted ren- 

 net is the source of infinite mischief to the dairy, even when the 

 taint is so slight as to be unsuspected. It produces ills well known 

 to the dairymen as huffing, rapid decomposition, nauseous stenches, 

 the breeding of mites and often the entire loss of the cheese."* 



In from forty to fifty minutes after the addition of the rennet, we 

 will suppose the milk to be properly coagulated ; the curd neither 

 too tender nor too firm. This brings us to our fourth point, 

 namely : 



The proper separation of the curd from the whey. It is in this 

 part of the process that the greatest improvements of late years 

 have been made. The first thing to be done is to cut it so as to 

 allow the curd to subside and the whey to collect by itself, clear 

 and free from both curd and butter. The coagulnm, when first 

 formed, is an exceedingly tender and delicate substance, and the 

 butter is held with the curd by a very frail tenure. It is the casein 

 alone which is affected by the action of the rennet, tlie latter hav- 

 ing no eflect on the oily globules, which are at this stage merely 

 embedded mechanically in the curd. If it be roughly or carelessly 

 crushed, there is sure to be loss of more or less of the oily or but- 

 tery portion and of the curd also, escaping as "white whey." 

 Many contrivances for cutting have been employed, among which 



♦ Willard's Essay. 



