CHEESE-MAKING. 257 



quality which will enable us to defy competion in any market of 

 the world. 



For the purpose of enabling us to do this with the greatest 

 degree of certainty, and with almost unvarying success, are we 

 assembled here in council to-day. 



At the request of your worthy Secretary, I will endeavor to 

 present to you in the most simple terms, the Herkimer county 

 method of cheese-making, as at present practiced by our most 

 successful cheese-makers. 



Cheese-making. 



The evening's milk is strained into the cheese vat, as the milk- 

 ing is proceeded with, until all the milk is in, when the agitator is 

 set to work by the waste water used to cool the milk, and by its 

 gentle movements back and forth, the milk is soon freed from all 

 new milk smell, or what is termed animal odor. It is not desira- 

 ble to cool the milk very rapidly, and if it is cooled to the temper- 

 ature of 65 deg. within three hours from the time the first milk 

 was put into the vat, it will be found quite soon enough to cool it. 

 Milk cooled below 60 deg. and kept at that temperature during 

 the night, will not make so good cheese as that left at the tem- 

 perature of 70 deg. Again, unless the temperature of the milk 

 can be controlled independently of the temperature of the atmos- 

 phere, it is better not to cool below the temperature of the atmos- 

 phere, than to cool below and then permit the atmosphere to raise 

 it again during the Right. Those dairymen who have no running 

 spring water with which to cool the milk, but use ice in connec- 

 tion with water from the well, often commit this mistake. 



If the agitator has been in operation during the night, no cream 

 will be found on the vat in the morning, and the agitator may be 

 continued in operation until all the morning's milk is added, when 

 the water should he shut off, the agitator removed, and the milk 

 warmed to the temperature of 84 deg. for the reception of the 

 rennet during warm v/eather ; at from 80 to 82 cleg, during hot,' 

 and from 86 to 88 deg. during cold or cool weather, provided the 

 temperature of the manufacturing room is under control of the 

 outside atmosphere. If the agitator has not been used during 

 the night, (which I do not regard necessary during cool weather, 

 unless all the cream is to be retained in the cheese), a cream will 

 be found on the milk in the morning, varying in firmness and 

 quality, according to the favorable or unfavorable conditions of 

 17 



