OLD HOMESTEAD 



cheese. The curd was then dipped out into a strainer cloth 

 laid over a rack in a sink standing on a whey-tub, to drain and 

 cool. When cool, the curd was measured back into the cheese- 

 tub and salted — one teacupful of salt to three gallons of curd. 

 It was then put into the wooden hoop, in which was laid a 

 strainer cloth, to be pressed. 



The press was a rude concern, made with a long beam upon 

 which, in wooden hoops, was hung a big rock, which was 

 raised up and down by means of a long lever when putting in 

 and taking out the cheese. An additional squeeze was put on 

 by placing a springy stick from this beam up against a floor 

 timber overhead and pulling it along the press beam, thus 

 getting more pressure than the rock alone would give. After 

 dinner the green cheese was turned in the hoop and bandaged 

 with thin cloth and again put under pressure until the next day. 



The cheese made in the manner I have described was soft 

 and required a long time to cure before fit for shipment. It was 

 kept on smooth benches in the darkened cheese-house, and 

 greased and turned daily and cared for all summer, the whole 

 product being sold in the fall, generally about the last of Octo- 

 ber. In early times it was packed in basswood casks holding 

 four or five each, and drawn to Sacketts Harbor or Port Ontario, 

 to go by water to New York or elsewhere. 



Out of the cheese money came the funds which were appro- 

 priated for taxes, payments on mortgages, land contracts and 

 other debts that must be met without fail. 



Dairying also resulted in having plenty of milk, whey and 

 swill with which to feed pigs and calves, the raising of both of 

 which was a profitable item, and every season we were supposed 

 to have a nice bunch of young cattle to sell, either yearlings or 

 two-year-olds, or perhaps both. 



149 



