No. 63.] 349 



observance of them, I find cheese made without any strong or rancid 

 taste, before it comes to its state of fermentation on the shelf, stands 

 the warm weather better and contains a smarter and pleasanter fla- 

 vor when it is ready for the table. The vessel in which I set my 

 milk, is a tin vat, which I set in a wooden one a few inches larger, 

 and stands two inches from the bottom of the wood vat. To forty 

 cows, (and in the same proportion for a less number,) during the 

 warmest of the season, I turn in eight or ten pails full of cold water 

 before I commence milking, and by the time the last is strained in, the 

 first is cooled, and with two or three stirrings it all cools, so that it 

 will keep till it goes through the process of making, in the warmest 

 weather. During the night I cover it with a rack. I think this bet- 

 ter than a strainer, as the heat, if any remains, will pass off better. 

 In the morning I draw the water from under the milk, and put in a 

 caldron kettle, which stands beside my vat. Then I take off the 

 cream into a large tin pail, and set in the water, and by the time the 

 milking is done, this is all sufficiently hot; then I put under my milk 

 as much of the warm water as is necessary to warm it; then I put in 

 the melted cream and apply the rennet. This, prepared in the ordi- 

 nary way, takes one tea cup full to forty cows, and in the same pro- 

 portion for a less number. The less rennet that can be applied, and 

 have it coagulate good, the better. I have a tin knife * made for the 

 purpose, with which I prepare my curd for the scalding, without much 

 breaking with the hand. The heat I apply according to the tempe- 

 rature of the weather, always aiming at a fixed point, which can be 

 done in warm weather with less heat applied than in cool. The curd 

 I work fine, so that it will scald even, and the whey all separate; and 

 scald slow, so as not to start the butter or oil from the curd. In the 

 salting, I apply one tea cup full of salt to fifteen pounds of curd. I 

 have two presses, and press forty-eight hours, with sufficient weight 

 to start the whey before it closes together; to prevent the whey from 

 pressing out, I turn them in the press in warm weather in 24 hours, 

 and in cool sooner. 



Norman Gowdy. 

 Martinsburgh, Oct. 15, 1843. 



BUTTER— Mr. Adams' Statement. 



Agreeably to the request of the officers of the Lewis County Ag- 

 ricultural Society, I give the following statement of my manner of 

 making butter and treatment of the dairy generally. 



We set our milk in tin pans on rack or slat shelves, in a cool dry 

 room, having rolling window blinds, so that we can in some degree 

 regulate the current of air. A free ventilation is necessary but it is 

 possible to have too much. As soon as the milk begins to become 

 sour, or before it coagulates, it is carefully skimmed into stone jars or 



*The knife is made by first making a tin frame 12 inches square, with a wire handle running 

 from each corner to the center, and forming a bow over the top, and twenty knives running across 

 the frame from side to side, about three-eighths of an inch apart. The outside or tin frame, is 

 about an inch wide, and the knives about half an inch in width. 



