258 THE AMERICAN FARMER 



Filling lip the Cracks. &quot;The cracks and checks in the cheese should be filled up 

 with particles of cheese that have been crushed under a knife to make them mellow and 

 plastic. When once filled, a strip of thin, tough paper, oiled and laid over the repaired sur 

 face, will serve as a further protection of the parts. The cheese in the checks soon hardens 

 and forms a new rind. Deep and bad looking checks may be repaired in this way, so as to 

 form a smooth surface, scarcely to be distinguished from the sound parts of the cheese. It 

 is a great mistake to send cheese that have deep checks or broken rinds to market; for in 

 addition to their liability to be attacked by the fly, they have the appearance of being imper 

 fect, and are justly regarded with suspicion.&quot; 



Boxing and Packing. &quot; In boxing cheese, whether for export or the home trade, 

 the greatest care should be taken to have the packages well made, and with an extra band on 

 the lower edge. Cheese should never be sent to market until they have properly ripened, 

 and they should be placed in boxes that fit boxes that slip down easily over the cheese, but 

 not so large as to allow shaking, or a movement from one side to the other in the box, nor 

 in so small a package as to prevent their being readily removed from the package without 

 breaking it. Good, substantial scale-boards should be placed on both sides of the cheese, 

 and no other material is so well adapted to the purpose where cheese is to be exported, or is 

 to remain some time in the package during its transit to market. For short distances heavy 

 straw paper may be used, but care should be taken not to pack with newspaper, as the mois 

 ture from the cheese will reduce it to a pulp, giving the cheese a very bad appearance on 

 removal from the box. 



When the cheese is in place, the sides of the package should come up just even with the 

 top surface of the cheese. If it is below this surface the cheese will be liable to be broken 

 and marred about the edges. If the rim of the box be a little higher than the cheese, it 

 should be trimmed down after the cheese is in the box with a sharp drawing-knife, and then 

 covers that fit closely should be adjusted. Sometimes the boxes are very imperfectly made, 

 with loose-fitting covers that are liable to fall off in rolling the cheese from the scales, or 

 in moving from place to place. In such cases the covers are sometimes tacked in place with 

 nails, but when nails are used, care should be taken that they do not reach through the wood 

 and into the cheese. 



The boxes should be neatly branded with the name of the factory, or if from farm dairies 

 with the name of the dairyman, and for this purpose stencil plates are most convenient, 

 while the lettering makes a neater appearance than when the names are burned on with 

 branding-irons.&quot; 



Profits of the Dairy. The products of the dairy are among the most useful and 

 delicious articles of diet. In these days when oleomargarine is disguised as butter, and when 

 lard, cotton-seed oil, and other adulterants are mixed with cheese, and a conglomerate of 

 skim milk, water, chalk, and burnt sugar is palmed off to customers as pure milk, dairy 

 products of the best quality cannot fail of being appreciated by consumers, and the demand 

 for this quality far exceeds the supply; hence, being standard articles of commerce, they will 

 always be in demand, and command good prices. Dairying, for the last twenty years, has 

 been very remunerative in this country, and is rapidly becoming more so. Besides the great 

 demand at home, there is also a large demand abroad. England, one of the wealthiest 

 nations on the globe, is desirous of procuring our surplus dairy products. The annual 

 importations of butter and cheese in England amount to more than 75,000,000, while the 

 demand at home is constantly increasing. There is no danger of the market being cloyed, 

 and when a good article is produced it will always find a market. Mr. Willard sums up the 

 requisites of profitable and successful dairying as follows: 



&quot;In summing up the requisites for successful dairying, I would say: 1. Make a good 

 selection of stock adapted to your wants; then, whether the animals be thoroughbreds, 



