396 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



near the stove-pipe. They eliould be liung in a dry atmosphere in a room 

 moderately warm. It is a curious and unexplained foot that freezing and 

 thawing when the skins are green, in the spring, increases their efficacy. They 

 are stronger, also, at a year old than when new, and the dairyman will do well 

 to keep a good stock on hand. It is important that just enough, and no more, 

 he added to the milk to efl'ect coagulation in about fifty minutes. 



To accomplish this the liquid rennet must be prepared with care, and its 

 strength ascertained by previous trials. The practice of the best cheese makers 

 is to take foiu- or six skins and soak them in milk-warm water — a pint or a 

 quart to each skin — with occasional rubbing during two or three hours, adding 

 salt enough fully to saturate the liquor, llepeat this process three times, so 

 that there shallbe altogether half a gallon or a gallon of liquid to each skin; 

 mix these infusions and strain through several thicknesses of flannel, add more 

 salt, and, if you please, a few lemons sliced, or a little spice, and keep in a 

 glass donijoh/i or stone jar. Do not fail to have an excess of salt, so that 

 some will remain undissolved, and keep the vessel contahiing it in a cool place. 

 If a smaller quantity be wanted, take a half or a fourth of several skins and 

 pi-epare in the same Avay, as by this method subsequent parcels can be made 

 of nearly or exactly the same strength, while if a whole one be used at one 

 time and another the next, the strength of the liquid may be very unequal. If 

 good skins are used, and a gallon of liquid be made from each, the probability 

 is that a pint of it will suffice to curdle fifty or sixty gallons of milk in forty 

 or fifty minutes, which is the proper time to be occupied in the coagulation. 

 After a few trials the amount necessary can be d(;termined very accurately. 

 Too much caution cannot be exercised to have the rennet pure, clean, and good. 

 Properly prepared, the liquid is bright, clear, and effective; perfectly free from 

 any disagreeable smell or taste, and, with suitable care, may be kept some 

 weeks in good order. I have known it sometimes safely kept through the 

 entire season. But if rennet is faulty in any respect, the cheese will suffer 

 accordingly. 



Mr. Willard very justly remarks : 



** Tainted rennet is the source of infinite mischief to the dairy, even when the taint is so 

 slight as to be unsuripected. It produces ills well known to the dairyman as huflHug, rapid 

 decomposition, nauseous stenches, the breeding of mites, and often the entire loss of the 

 cheese." 



An instance in illustration of Mr. TVillard's remark may here be cited. An 

 old dairyman, in Herkimer county, a few years ago, lost a large quantity of 

 cheese, and neither he nor his neighbors for a long time suspected the cause 

 of the trouble. The cheese seemed perfect when made, but the fermentation 

 soon became violent, and the cheese Avould turn itself completely out of the 

 bandage. One after another they were thrown to the hogs. He changed his 

 rennet, buying new skins of his neighbors, but the liquid was put in the same 

 wooden tub formerly used, and which, without his being aware of the fact, had 

 become taiutt^d. At length, on the suggestion of a critical friend, who examined 

 the dairy, he threw the tub away, with its contents, substituted a stone jar, 

 procured good skins, and the trouble was at an end. 



Be the rennet ever so faultless, it is well to add no more than just enough to 

 accomplish the desired end. It is often supposed that if more be added the 

 only effect is to hasten the curdling, and that the excess passes off in the whey ; 

 but there is a liability hicurred of a disagreeable " reunety" flavor, and of dis- 

 turbed and irregular ripening. Besides this, when too much rennet is used, the 

 curd forma too rapidly, and the cheese in this case is too hard, and often rather 

 sour also. On the other hand, if the milk be not coagulated within an hour, 

 the curd will be too tender, and cannot be easily separated from the whey with- 

 out loss of butter and consequent deterioration of quality to the cheese. No 

 better rule can be given than to add rennet enough to bring the curd of a firm- 



