90 repo;;t of the agriculture of Ayrshire. 



the less better women, less loveable, or less thoroughly useful 

 members of society. Rennet, as made in Ayrshire, is simply the 

 strained liquid in which the cut-up salted stomachs of calves 

 (popularly " yearnins") have been immersed for a few days, the 

 water being usually boiled and allowed to cool again to milk 

 heat ere the " yearnin" is put in to steep. The stomach is 

 emptied of its contents, which being cleaned and mixed with a 

 handful or two of salt, is put back again, and being likewise well 

 rubbed outside, the full stomachs are then hung up to dry in the 

 kitchen, and where they often hang for a year or more before 

 using. It takes about one gill of rennet, more or less, according 

 to its strength, to properly thicken the day's milk of about 20 

 cows. 



The breaking of the thickened fluid comes next in course. 

 This is effected, generally, by passing the arm and outspread 

 palm, softly and steadily, in all directions through the coagulated 

 milk. After a short time allowed for the curd to subside — most. 

 assisting by pressing it gently down with their palms — the whey 

 is lifted off with a suitable vessel, and poured through a sieve 

 into some icceptacle for the use of the pigs. The massed curd 

 left in the " boyen" is then cut into about 4-inch cubes, which are 

 tied into a wet coarse cloth, spread within a square wooden box 

 with perforated bottom andsides (termed a "dreeper" or "drainer"), 

 and subjected to a pressure of about 30 lbs. or so. The curd un- 

 dergoes this process four to six times (varying at different dairies), 

 with lengthening intervals between, and each succeeding time be- 

 ing cut into still smaller pieces, with increased pressure, till the 

 whey has been as completely expressed as the "dreeper" is capable 

 of. In some dairies still the broad lump of solid curd is now minced 

 fine with a peculiar S-shaped long-handled knife ; but in the better- 

 conducted dairies, for many years back, the lump is first cut into 

 4-inch cubes or so, and which are then put through the "curd-mill.'' 

 The mills were furnished at first with sharp knife-teeth, but the 

 cylinders are now fitted with eighth-part rectangular pegs (gal- 

 vanized) which tear the curd into fragments. The breaking thus 

 ot the curd is considered an improvement, not only in being more 

 expedite and less tiresome than the old-fashioned S-mincer, but 

 the fracturing every bit undergoes, leaves the ground curd in a 

 ragged state, forming more perfect cohesion afterwards, and any 

 remaining serum coming more readily away. Due allowance of 

 salt having been intermixed, a fit-sized " Chessat" (abbreviation 

 for '' Cheese-vat") is selected, and a cheese-cloth being spread 

 within it, the prepared curd is firmly tressed in with the hand ; 

 the corners of the cloth being brougtit up over all, and the con- 

 tained curd, it may oe, jutting some three to four inches above 

 the edge of the chessat. By this time it is rather past noon of the 

 day. Some then place the chessat in front of the kitchen fire, 



