406 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



leading to tLc press-room. Tables and racks of convenient height for hand- 

 ling the cheese arc arranged in the curing-house. On these the cheese is 

 placed as it comes from the press, and here it remains during the process of 

 curing. Each cheese, when placed on the table, receives a record of its weight 

 and date neatly marked on its bandage. The wood best adapted for the table 

 is hemlock. It should be well seasoned and made smooth and level. Pine is 

 .'ometimes used, but being more or less resinous is liable to impart some of its 

 flavor to the cheese ; the cheese also adheres to it more closely than to hem- 

 lock. Wood like basswood is objectionable and should not be used, for the 

 cheese adheres to it so closely as not to be readily loosened, marring the rind, 

 and often taking out considerable portions of the cheese itself. 



The cheese-rack is a recent invention and a great improvement upon the 

 table. It consists of four by five inch scantling with the comers bevelled or 

 cut so as to be five-sided. These are framed the proper distance apart at the 

 «!uds aud set on legs of the desired height, forming a skeleton table. Round 

 covers of inch hemlock or pine, bound with stout elm rims three or four inches 

 Avide, set upon the racks and hold the cheese. When a cheese is to be turned, 

 a spare cover is placed on top and tbe cheese and cover turned over. The 

 cover now on top is removed, rubbed with a cloth, and is ready to be applied 

 to the next cheese. The rims of the covers protect the edges of the cheese in 

 the process of turning, and a part of the cheese swinging down in the open 

 space between the timbers, and tbe rims resting ou the bevelled edges or sides, 

 renders the operation easy and insures safety to the cheese. A large cheese 

 can be turned with as much ease on a properly constructed rack as the loosen- 

 ing of a smaller one on a table preparatory to its being turned. Large cheeses 

 are difficult to handle on a table, aud are liable to have their edges broken or 

 otherwise marred in turning. 



The windows of the curing-house are provided with curtains or shades to 

 prevent too much heat and the direct shining in of the sun. Sufficient ventila- 

 tion is also provided for. In all the establishments recently erected there are 

 labor-saving arrangements too nuiuerous to be here mentioned in detail, which 

 add materially to the ease, economy, and expedition with which the various 

 processes are conducted. 



The process of manufacture at these establishments is substantially the same 

 as that described as practiced in the best private dairies. Several deviations 

 and modifications are, however, introduced, most of which are necessitated by 

 a difierencc in the condition of the material employed, or by tlie larger quantity 

 operated upon, or grow out of the fact that time enough can bo given 

 without neglecting other duties. In the first place, greater labor has to be 

 bestowed upon the cooling of the evening's milk than would be had it been 

 carried only a few rods into the house, in order to reduce its temperature suffi- 

 ciently to insure the absence of too great acidity in the morning. For the 

 same reason there is rarely, perhaps never in summer, any need of increasing 

 its acidity by the use of sour whey. For several reasons, one of Avhich is that 

 five or six hundred gallons of milk in a mass will not lose its heat so quickly 

 Jis a small amount, it is set (that is, the rennet is added) at a lower temperature 

 in these dairies, say 82° instead of 68°, as in family manufacture. Late in the 

 summer and autumn, when the milk has diminished in bulk more than in pro- 

 portion to the solid constituents contained in it, cold water is sometimes added 

 to the evening's milk, which serves the double purpose of cooling it and re- 

 ducing its density to that of milk during the juicy flush of feed earlier in the 

 season and nearer the calving of the cows. Next, the amount of rennet added 

 is a trifle lees, so that sufficient coagulation is rarely effected in less than an hour; 

 and inasmuch as during this time there is a tendency of the cream to rise, the prac- . 

 lice has been adopted in some factories to stir the milk, or rather to keep th<^ 

 surface of it gently in motion until the action of the rennet is perceptible. 



