DAIRY HUSBANDRY. 353 



from the constant dampness of the skin ; the sides are apt to 

 get fly-blown, when maggots are the result, and the cheese is 

 injured. The object of cutting the curd into thin slices, and 

 placing them in alternate layers, is, that it may more readily get 

 mouldy, and acquire the peculiar character of good Stilton 

 brittleness with softness, richness, and mouldiness. In Rutland 

 and Leicestershire, where the Stilton cheeses are made, the 

 plan adopted is the same as that of the Dorset farmers in 

 making their poor green Dorset cheese, that is, by inoculating 

 the curd with some old, mouldy cheese. The cheese is of pool- 

 character, made up of half-creamed milk.* 



&quot; The cheese is salted by rubbing salt in the sides of the 

 cheese, when it has its swaddling bands removed, every day. 

 This cheese takes at least eighteen months before it is fit for the 

 table. The details I have given are those descriptive of the 

 manufacture of the best Stilton.&quot; f 



I shall give next the directions, in her own words, of an ex 

 cellent dairy-woman, whose produce proves her skill for making 



( 3.) Cheshire Cheese. &quot; Take thirty gallons of new milk to 

 make a good-sized cheese, and then put the rennet into the milk. 

 When come into curd, break it up very small ; then bring it 

 together into one side of the tub ; then dip the whey from it, 

 and put it into the cheese, with a cloth inside of the vat, and 



* In my inquiries, in Gloucestershire, of an eminent dairy- woman, what method 

 they adopted to prevent the cheese from heaving or bursting 1 , she, with a little 

 gentle stammering, and rather a threatening scowl from her husband, informed me 

 that &quot; they sometimes put in a little white lead&quot; But &quot; tficy did not put in muck, 

 and they did not know that it did any liarm&quot; Of course, as it went to London 

 market, they could not know whether it did harm or good. It might have been 

 well to have inquired of the doctors or the undertakers. Arsenic would have 

 been more certain in stilling all complaints of the quality of the cheese. 



In Cheshire, it was much more common than it now is, to put a handful of pins 

 in the centre of the cheese, to create a mouldiness, and give an appearance of 

 age. What would be the effect of the decomposition of the metal in such cases ? 

 The chemists might tell us. 



With such ingenious medicaments applied to our food, we have great reason 

 to say, in respect to our bodies, with good Dr. Watts, 



&quot; Strange, that a harp of thousand strings 

 Should keep in tune so long ! &quot; 



f Private letter of John Morton, Esq. to H. C. 

 30* 



