MANUFACTURE OF CHEESE. 407 



The moment the least thickening is perceived, ho-wever, the vat is covered and 

 left perfectly at rest until thick enough to cut. In the cutting it is customary 

 to use knives with more than four blades. I have seen some with as many as 

 thirteen blades used for the first cutting, and for subsequent use it is common 

 to have one with six blades. As already remarked, the making of cheese at 

 the factories is proceeded with more leisurely than is usual in families. It is 

 their work for all day, and no inducements exist to hurry through the pro- 

 cesses. 



The heat used in cooking the curd is raised very gradually, say at fii-st only 

 to 86°, and half or three-quarters of an hour later to 90°, and afterwards to 94°, 

 and is never allowed to go beyond 98°. The cooking process usually occu- 

 pies not less than two hours, and much oftencr three or four hours. When too 

 much acidity is present, and the manufacturer has only to choose between a 

 hurriedly cooked curd and a sour one, he chooses the least evil of the two, and 

 hastens the process. Throughout the cooking the curd is handled with extreme 

 care, thus saving the loss of the butter from it which would be liberated with 

 rougher usage. The lack of hurry and its attendant evils must be considered 

 one of the advantages of factory work over private dairying, since in the latter 

 there is always a very natural and almost an irrepressible desire not to expend 

 more time on the process than can be afforded or conveniently spared from the 

 pressing calls of other household labors. 



SIZE AXD FOR.M. 



In a commercial point of view it is a matter of some consequence not only to 

 produce a good article, but to confer upon it a satisfactory external appearance, 

 and so the size and form of cheeses are of importance in connexion with the 

 demand of the market where they are to be disposed of. The recognized 

 style of Cheddar cheese in the London market is about twelve and a half 

 .nches thick by fifteen and a half wide. If made smaller, the same proportions 

 are observed. The rule adopted in Herkimer county, namely, to have the 

 depth equal to half the breadth is probably as good and convenient as any. 

 A thick cheese is more easily turned than a thin one; it presents less surface to 

 be oiled and rubbed, or to lie in contact with the shelf, and when shipped to 

 market is more easily handled. The most popular' size for factory cheese 

 for exportation during the past year has been from one hundred and ten to one 

 hundred and forty pounds. Slost factories decide on the weight and form, and 

 have all conform to it as nearly as possible. The range is mostly from nine by 

 twenty to ten by twenty-two inches. At some a few show cheeses are occa- 

 sionally made, weighing from eight hundred to one thousand poimds, or even 

 more. Cheeses made for shipping south should be much smaller. Those 

 weigliing from thirty to forty pounds usually give best satisfaction. 



FOR SOUTHERN MARKETS AND LONG VOYAGES. 



In order to produce an article which will keep in tropical climates, the re- 

 quisites are, in brief, a smaller proportion of butter and a firmer texture. The 

 article known in New York market as English dairy or Goshen cheese, which 

 is largely manufactured in private dairies in Litchfield county, Connecticut, is 

 of this character, and has been principally sold to go to the southern States, to 

 ihe West Indies, and to California, and commands a good price. The method 

 f its manufacture, as I witnessed it at the farm of Messrs. S. W. & T. S. 

 Gold, on Cream Hill, West Cornwall, was as follows : The evening's milk of 

 about forty cows is strained into a vat two and a half feet wide, five feet long, 

 and holding three barrels, and cooled by pouring cold water into a cast-iroa 

 water vat enclosing the inner one, which is of tin. In the morning the cream 

 is taken off and the milk heated to about 90°. The morning's milk in added, 



