56 FARMER'S ASSISTANT. 



enclosecj. Here they are to lie for the purpose of sweat 

 ing. They should lie about four or five days, when the 

 weather is dry and warm ; but longer, when wet and cool ; 

 and let them be dried, by exposure to the sun, the roten 

 ones thrown away, and ground immediately in a clean 

 mill. 



When the cheese is made, it should stand about twelve 

 or fourteen hours, before the press is put upon it; for this 

 delay in pressing will greatly improve the cider. 



The best plan of making the cheese is, to cut off the but 

 ends of the straw, and lay it along on the four sides, with 

 the cut ends projecting out about four inches, on each side, 

 beyond the extent intended to be given the cheese: Then, 

 with a strait smooth board, made for the purpose, about 

 five inches wide, and of sufficient length, you commence 

 forming one side of the layer of pumace, by building it up 

 compactly against the board, which is set upright on its 

 edge. When that side is formed, take away the board, and 

 in the same way proceed to form the next, and so on till 

 the four sides are built up. Then lay on another layer ot 

 straw, as before, and proceed with the board to build up 

 the four sides of the next layer of pumace, and thus you 

 proceed building up the cheese as nearly perpendicular as 

 possible. 



In this way, the cheese, by having the straw to lap well 

 in the middle, or centre, is in no danger of bursting open 

 in pressing, as is often the case when large cheeses are 

 made in the common way, with the straw brought round 

 the outside of each layer of the pumace. We have seen 

 cheeses made, in the manner here recommended, large 

 enough to run off twenty-four barrels of cider. 



The first and last runing of a ciieese should be put by 

 itself, as it is not so good as the rest. In pouring the cider 

 into the cask, let there be a strainer of coarse cloth in the 

 bottom of the funnel, to keep out the pumace. New casks, 

 or those which have just been emptied of brandy, are the 

 best. If old casks are to be used, it is of the utmost im- 

 portance to have them perfectly clean. When they are 

 iirst emptied, they should be well washed, and then bunged 

 up tight. For want of this precaution, they often become 

 musty, and then they spoil ail the liquor afterwards put 

 into them. 



The only successful method of cleansing musty casks, 

 we have ever heard of, is that communicated by M. Lenor- 

 nancies^ which he learned of a French Peasant, as appears 

 in * The Annals of Arts and Manufactures/ published iti 

 France, and is as follows : 



4 Make up in quantity \yhat will be equal to about a 

 sixteenth- part of what the cask to be cleansed will hold, of 



