SECRETARY'S REPORT. 



113 



ods, is a laborious one. Curd is run up from new milk, night and 

 morning. There is no proper cooking of it in the whey and con- 

 sequently when put into the hoop it must have very gentle and 

 slowly increased pressure, with repeated turnings for several days ; 

 and when it leaves the press for the curing room, it must be handled 

 with great care. In dairies of forty to fifty cows, I found six or more 

 presses in use at once, while in Herkimer county, for a dairy of 

 the same size, one press and one day's pressure accomplished the 

 object more effectually. The only improvement noticed^ either in 

 the process or utensils, over those of former years was the intro- 

 duction of a box-like curd cutter, by the use of which it was divided 

 into half inch cubes with much greater ease than it could be done 

 by hand, as was formerly practiced. The cheese is rich, mild, soft 

 and adapted for home consumption. It is not much unlike that 

 generally made in Vermont. 



Litchfield county, in Connecticut, has long been famous for its 

 cheese, which is sold in New York under the name of "English 

 Dairy" or " Goshen" cheese ; Goshen being one of the towns ear- 

 liest and most largely engaged in its manufacture. The article 

 there made being well adapted for keeping in hot climates, and 

 enduring long voyages well, it has been principally sold to go to 

 the southern States, to the West Indies and to California, and com- 

 mands a good price. 



The method of its manufacture, as I witnessed it at the farm of 

 Messrs. S. W. & T. S. Gold, on Cream Hill, West Cornwall, was 

 as follows : The evening's milk of about forty cows is strained into 

 a vat about two and a half feet wide, and five feet long, and hold- 

 ing three barrels, and cooled by pouring cold water into a cast iron 

 water vat enclosing the inner one which is of tin. In the morning 

 what cream may have risen is taken off and the milk heated to 90°. 

 The morning's milk is added, and annotto sufficient to give it an 

 orange tint (one pound of good quality suffices for a ton of cheese) 

 and rennet to curdle it in half an hour are then put in and well 

 stirred. The first cutting of the curd was done by pushing down- 

 wards through the mass a square tin frame, dividing it into columns 

 of about an inch. The warm water in the outer vat was then drawn 

 off and cold water put in its place. The curd was next farther 

 broken by hand, and as it settled, a portion of the whey was dipped 

 off and heated to scald the cur^d of the preceding day. The curd and 

 whey remaining were then dipped into a cloth strainer, laid in a 

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