98 BRITISH DAIRYING. 



and higher or lower according to the state of the weather and 

 the time of year. The object was to have a portion of acid 

 curd to mix with the new, and this indeed is the crux of the 

 whole process. If the kept curd has not become perceptibly 

 acid during the night, it is put into a warm place for an hour 

 or two before it is wanted for mixing, and this turns it acid. 

 Here we have in a small way a crude and unscientific parallel 

 to the Cheddar method of developing the acid. 



At one of the farm-houses which I visited, not far from 

 Blackpool, I was deeply interested. Here were two delicate- 

 looking, motherless girls, who made their father's cheese. They 

 were evidently cast down with anxiety, for the cheese was 

 generally "sweet" a fatal fault. And yet these young women 

 had done and were doing all that was in them to have it right. 

 The dairy, the house everything about the place was scrupu- 

 lously clean and in perfect order : and yet the cheese was bad. 

 The evening's milk was cooled at once, kept as sweet and 

 fresh as possible through the night, and made into cheese with 

 the fresh morning's milk. No curd was kept from one day to 

 the next, and every suspicion of acidity in the milk, and in 

 everything else, was carefully watched. Here was the grand 

 mistake the exclusion of the ferments which are an aid to 

 cheese-making, an indispensable aid. 



I explained the situation to them, advised them what to do, 

 and went away. I have not seen them since, but heard a year 

 ago that my advice had been followed with complete success. 

 One of them, I heard, had married a farmer, and her cheese 

 had taken the second prize at an exhibition ! This " bread 

 cast upon the waters," returned after many days. 



I have, in a very few instances, been struck with the marked 

 success of dairymaids who do not use a thermometer ; but, after 

 all, a thermometer would save them a power of guessing. 

 Where we find one successful dairymaid who does not use a 

 thermometer, there are twenty who are more or less unsuccess- 

 ful for want of it. But a thermometer is not of much use 

 unless judgment goes with it; its merit lies in saving trouble as 

 to guessing, and avoiding uncertainty as to temperature. 



