NEEDS OF THE DAIRY. 251 



I apprehend, is produced by bad rennet. The difference in the 

 strength of rennets is well illustrated by the experience, during the 

 pael Beason, of one of the best factories in Herkimer county. Mr. 

 Moon, of the North Fairfield factory, sent to the Utica Morning 

 Herald a report of the operations of his factory during the past sea- 

 son. Near the close I find these items : " Number of rennets used, 

 130. Of these, 3?G were received from patrons, and each rennet, 

 on an average, coagulated the milk for 462 pounds of cheese. 'The 

 other 100 rennets were bought in the market, and called ' butchers' 

 rennets.' Each rennet coagulated the milk for 158 pounds of 

 cheese. " It will be seen by this that the " butchers' rennets " 

 were worth only about one-third as much as those saved by the 

 patrons for coagulating purposes; audi have no doubt that the 

 differeuce in quality was quite as great. 



Too much care cannot be exorcised in saving rennets. They 

 should be taken from healthy calves with good digestive powers, 

 soon after the stomach has emptied itself, carefully cleaned, so as 

 not to lose any of the little globules that act on the milk, thor- 

 oughly salted, stretched on a bow or crotched stick, and dried in 

 a cool place. This is the best method I know of, but experience 

 may yet develop a better. We need experiments in this direction 

 as well as others. Mr. Arnold succeeded very well in preserving 

 rennets by soaking them in a weak preparation of carbolic acid 

 and then drying them as 1 have indicated. But he found great 

 care necessary to prevent the acid from decomposing the animal 

 substance of the rennet so that it would dissolve and fill the liquid 

 with particles of animal matter. His charcoal filter for deodoriz- 

 ing rennet I consider valuable. It is formed " by perforating the 

 bottom of a butter-tub, or any thing similar, and laying several 

 thicknesses of muslin on the bottom to catch the coal dust; then 

 lay on two or three inches of pulverized coal, and on it one thick- 

 ness of muslin ; then lay on clean sand enough to hold the coal in 

 its place. The sand will assist also in distributing the rennet 

 over the whole surface of the coal. Then pass water through the 

 filter till it will run through clean. The liquid rennet may then 

 be passed slowly through by falling upon the sand in a stream 

 proportioned to the size of the filter, when it will come through 

 sweet and pure, with its efficiency but little abated. Rennet thus 

 deodorized loses all tendency to huffing, and also its liability to 

 give any bad flavor or smell to the cheese." Mr. Arnold adds : 





