FARMERS' REGISTER. 



291 



place, in ihe press, of those made in the morning, 

 and those made in the evenmg are, in their turn, 

 displaced by those made the Ibllowing morning, the 

 cheeses o!' the last making being always placed 

 lowest in the press, and those ol' the other makings 

 rising in it according to ihe priority ol'making. The 

 same order is observed in the other two presses, the 

 lastornewcst making in each being lowest, and each 

 makinir liaving next above it that which was made 

 last belbre it. The cheeses pass througli ihe iliree 

 presses in this order, advancing a step in their pro- 

 gress at each 'meal' or making, till, at last, in lour or 

 tivedavs, they coiiie out oJ'ihe presses and are put 

 upon the shelves. They are generally salted at 

 the end of iwen'y-four hours aiier ihey are made, 

 though this is done by some ai the end ol" twelve 

 hours. The salting should never be begun till the 

 skin is all closed, for if there be any crack in the 

 skin of the cheese at the time of salting, it will 

 never close afterwards. The salting is peilbrmed 

 by rubbing with the hand both the sides and the 

 edge of the cheese with finely powdered suit. The 

 cheese, after this, is relured to the vats, and put 

 under the press, care being always taken, accor- 

 ding to what has been said, to put the newest 

 cheese lowest in the press, and the oldest upper- 

 most. The salting is repeated three times with 

 thesiiigle, and four tunes with the double Glouces- 

 (er, twenty-four hours being allowed to intervene 

 between each salting. Alter the second salting, 

 the cheeses are returned to the vais wiihoulthe 

 cloths, that the marks of the cloih may be eflaced, 

 and the cheese may get a smoothness ofsurlace and 

 ^keeiH)ess of edge, which is a peculiarity of Glou- 

 cestershire cheese. The double Gloucester remain 

 in the presses five days, and the sinirle, four; but 

 in damp weather they should remain longer. The 

 quantity of salt generally used is about three 

 pounds and a half lo a cwt. of cheese. 



y%e cheese room. — When the cheeses are taken 

 from the salting presses, they are put on Ihe shelf 

 in the dairy lor a day or two, where ihey are 

 turned once in twelve hours. Thev are then taken to 

 (he cheese-loft to make way for the new ones. In 

 the cheese-room, either on the fioor or on the 

 'cheese-rack,' they are turned once every day; 

 and, in general, in a month from the time they were 

 taken out of the vat, they are ready for cleaning, 

 which is done by scrapiilg them with a common 

 knile. The dairy-maid, in doing this, sits down, 

 on the floor, takes a cheese in her la[), and with 

 the knite scrapes both sides and edge clean, taking 

 ofi'all scurfthey may have contracted. The cheese, 

 if intended lor the London market, as is generally 

 the case, when it has been thus cleaned, is rubbed 

 all over with a paint made of Indian red, or of 

 Spanish brown, or of a mixture of both, and small 

 beer. It is rubbed on with a woollen cloth. After 

 being painted, it is turned over twice a week, and 

 oftener in damp weather; and, as soon as the state 

 of the paint will permit, the ediies of the cheese 

 and about an inch ol'each side is rubbed hard with 

 a cinth, at least once a week. 



Characteristics of true Gloucester. — The marks 

 of true Gloucester cheeses are. — ' the blue coat,' 

 which arises, through the paint on iheir sides, and 

 which is a sure sign of their richness and sweet- 

 ness, — the yellow, golden hue of their edges, — a 

 smooth, close, and wax like texture, — a very mild 

 and rich flavor, — not crumbling when cut into thin 

 slices, nor parting, when toasted, with the oily 



matter they contain, but softening, without burning. 

 If cheese has been soured in the making, either 

 from being two long in hand, or from want of at- 

 tention in scalding the utensils, nothing will cause 

 it to assume the blue coat. If the curd is salted, 

 when ground down belbre being put into the vats, 

 the salt has the effect of giving a skin to each of 

 the particles of the curd it comes in contact with, 

 which prevents them Irom intimately uniting ; and, 

 although the curd may be pressed together and be- 

 comes good cheese, yet it never becomes a smooth, 

 close, solid mass, like that with is salted after it is 

 made, but is of a loose texture, and crumbles when 

 cut ; and although it may be equally liit, yet in 

 toasting Ihe fat melts out of it, and the cheesy 

 part burns. The skin of the cheese, too, is not 

 tough and solid, but hard and brittle, and when 

 examined seems to be Ibrmed of many irregular 

 portions, something like mosaic work. 



Making of the butter. — The milk as it comes 

 from the cows, is strained through a hair-sieve 

 into the tin vessels, which are about Jour inches 

 deep. It is allowed to stand only twelve hours, 

 when the cream is taken off with the skim- 

 ming-dish and put into the cream vessels, and the 

 milk is warmed and carried to the cheese tub. 

 The cream is shifted into iiesh cream vessels once 

 a day, and is also stirred frequently during the day 

 with the wooden knife, that is always kept in each 

 of the cream vessels. This continued shifting and 

 stirring of the cream prevent a skin from forming 

 on the top of it, which is injurious to the butter. 



In summer or in hot weather, several gallons 

 of cold water should be put into the churn, and 

 allowed to remain an hour in it to cool the churn, 

 belbre the cream is put into it. The cream is 

 f=i rained through a coarse canvass cloth kept ex- 

 clusively Ibr this purpose, and then put into the 

 churn. The operation of churning should, in 

 summer or in hot weather, be very slow, other- 

 wise the butter will be very soit when taken out : 

 but in winter or in cold weather, and particularly 

 in frosty weather, the churn should be prepared 

 for receiving the cream by putting hot water into 

 it, and allowing it to remain fbr half an hour to 

 heal ihe churn ; and, then, the operation of churn- 

 ing should be perlbrmed quickly, and now and 

 then the air, that escapes from the cream in churn- 

 ing, should be let out of the churn, or it will make 

 the cream iioih, and lengthen the process of 

 churning very much. 



When the butter is taken out of the churn, it is 

 customary with most people to wash it with cold 

 water belbre salting it. This is never done here, 

 Mrs. Hay ward having found Irom long experience, 

 that butter retains its sweetness much longer when 

 no water is used in making it up. When it is 

 taken out of the churn, it is well worked wilh the 

 hand, which presses out most of the milk; it is 

 then beaten wilh a cloth, or raiher, a cloih is re- 

 peatedly pressed down upon it, which alisorbs all 

 the remainiiifi milk. When this is properly per- 

 lbrmed, and no traceofbuiter-milk remains,it is salt- 

 ed 10 ihe taste with finely powdered salt, which is 

 well mixed with it by working it in vviih the hands. 

 It is then weighed inio half-|)0uiids. and made up 

 in rolls, about nine inches long. The process of 

 making butter from the cream of whey is the 

 same as that just described. Butter is made twice 

 a week during summer. 



The quantity of milk butter made on this farm, 



