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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



(Mr. R. Keevil, of Stroud farm, Lacock), and 

 Messrs, Griffiths, of Birmingham (to whom Mr. 

 Keevil sold his right of vending the apparatus), 

 one would be induced to beheve it to be one of the 

 most useful of modern inventions ; yet it has not, 

 either from the original cost being too high, or for 

 the reason given in the proverb, that " a prophet 

 has no honour in his own country," or some other 

 reason, found its way into many of the Wiltshire 

 dairies. 



Cheese is only made once a day when the appa- 

 ratus is used, the night's milk being set up in 

 shallow leads or tins, and skimmed in the morning, 

 and mixed with the new milk, A portion of the 

 night's milk is heated to raise the temperature to 

 84 degrees (a thermometer being always used): in 

 the spring and fall, 90 degrees is the standard. 

 The usual mode of colouring and running is 

 adopted, and the usual time allotted for coagula- 

 tion, viz., an hour ; at the end of that time the 

 knives, which are fixed in a beam across the vessel, 

 one half of which are horizontal, the other half per- 

 pendicular, are moved gently round till the curd is 

 cut and broken sufficiently small. The knives are 

 then taken out, and the curd allowed to settle. 

 There is no scald used, except in the spring and 

 fall of the year. When the whey is ready to be 

 drawn off, a skimmer is used, to remove the curd 

 from the face of the filter. The plug is drawn out, 

 and the whey runs off at the tap placed at the bot- 

 tom of the vessel. Care must be taken that on 

 drawing out the plug, the filter is not removed. 

 When the upper portion of the whey is run off, and 

 the curd becomes visible, a cloth about a foot wider 

 than the vessel is laid over it, placing the edges 

 down the side, so that no curd can escape. The 

 pressing plate is then applied by the bearmg arms 

 and screw, with gentle pressure at first, gradually 

 increasing it till the whey ceases to run ; the press- 

 ing plate and cloth are then removed, and a knife 

 passed two or three times round the curd, dividing 

 it into rings. It is then cut across from the centre 

 outwards, say at seven or eight equal distances. 



The centre pieces are removed and laid round 

 the outside; the cloth is then spread in the centre, 

 and the pieces of curd put into it, and the ends of 

 the cloth folded over it, when the pressing plate is 

 again applied. This process is repeated, till the 

 curd becomes quite dry. The salt is then added. 

 The curd does not require crushing, but is put in 

 the vats in large pieces, and placed directly in the 

 press. The same process of dry clothing, salting, 

 &c., is necessary, as before described. The whey 

 is not placed in leads as in the old method, but 

 runs directly to the vault for the pigs, as all the 

 fatty matter, it is said, by this process is retained 

 in the curd. 



In addition to Mr. Keevil's apparatus, another 

 has within the last three or four years been intro- 

 duced, known as " Cockey's Apparatus," manu- 

 factured and sold by Mr. Cockey, of Frome, in 

 Somersetshire, and as this has not been so fre- 

 quently before the public, at the risk of being con- 

 sidered tedious, I must be allowed to give a descrip- 

 tion of it, and the method of making cheese there- 

 with, which I will endeavour to do as briefly as I 

 possibly can to make myself understood. The 



vessel or cheese cowl, which is made either of tin, 

 zinc, or copper (the latter is recommended by Mr. 

 Cockey, as it does not corrode), is placed upon a 

 raised wooden platform, made wide enough to allow 

 the dairy-maid to walk and perform the necessary 

 operations. In the kitchen or washhouse a boiler 

 is erected, which forces hot water through a coil of 

 pipes at the bottom of the vessel, and back to the 

 boiler, by which the milk is heated to the proper 

 temperature. There are two taps in the pipes 

 within the dairy, at the command of the dairy- 

 woman, and near to the vessel, to enable her easily 

 to turn the water off or on. As soon as the milk 

 or whey is sufficiently heated, the taps are stopped, 

 and the water in the pipes is let out into a bucket 

 by another tap at the bottom of the tub, and re- 

 turned to the tank that supplies the boiler. When 

 all the milk is put in the vessel, the hot water is 

 turned through the pipes till the milk is heated to 

 the proper temperature (S5 degrees, carefully tested 

 by the thermometer) ; the rennet and colouring 

 matter are then stirred into it, and the water is turned 

 off and drawn away from the pipes, and after co- 

 agulation is complete, the breaking up is performed 

 much in the same way as in the " old method ;" 

 and when nearly completed, instead of adding " the 

 scald," or heated whey, the hot water is again 

 turned through the pipes until the temperature of 

 the curd and whey is raised to 88 or 90 degrees, 

 the stirring stick being kept briskly moving round 

 the vessel all the time, to prevent the curd settling 

 at the bottom, as the heat would then make it 

 tough or " leathery " in a few minutes. The water 

 is again let off, as soon as the temparature reaches 

 the above point, and in a few minutes the curd is 

 allowed to settle, the whey is let off at a tap at the 

 bottom of the vessel, and removed to the leads as 

 in the old system. The curd is then scored with a 

 knife in various directions, and heaped in the 

 middle of the tub, the bottom of which being made 

 convex, the whey drains readily away without any 

 pressure ; it is cut and turned three or four times, 

 is then salted and Hfted to the mill, which is placed 

 in a wooden trough, some 6 feet long, by 3 feet 6 

 inches wide, standing about the height of a table 

 in the trough ; it is put into the vats as fast as it is 

 crushed, and moved off to the press, when the same 

 process of re-vatting, salting, and turning is gone 

 through, as before described. 



I have now finished a description of the methods 

 that are adopted in making Wiltshire cheese. 

 I shall, in conclusion, give you a short statement 

 of the advantages claimed for the new systems by 

 their respective advocates, and I must leave you to 

 form your own conclusions upon the subject. 



The chief recommendation of Mr. Cockey's ap- 

 paratus is the saving of labour. The carrying of 

 the milk for warming, and the whey for the scald, 

 to and from the boiler, is saved by the application 

 of the hot water to the bottom of the vessel : by this 

 method there is also a saving of the labour of 

 dipping the whey, and the labour of pressing the 

 curds with the hands ; or a board with a weight is 

 not required, from the formation of the bottom of 

 the vessel. Very great care, however, is required 

 in the management of the hot water ; if it remains 

 too long, or obtains too great a heat, or if the curd 



