100 BRITISH DAIRYING 



time I am free to admit that drastic improvements done to the 

 soil require modifications in the method of cheese-making. 

 Cheshire farmers have found this to be the case, and have met 

 the change successfully. No land, indeed, can be too rich for 

 yielding fine cheese, providing the question of ferments is 

 intelligently understood, and the curd is brought within the 

 influence of acidity. 



Cheese ovens are now general in the county usually they 

 are on the other side of the wall, behind the kitchen fireand 

 the loose curd in the vat, slightly salted or not salted at all, is 

 placed in them for the night. This practice develops the acid, 

 but it has the fault of hardly avoidable irregularity of tempera- 

 ture. It is, however, effectual for the obj ect desired, and if 



the cheese of any given Cheshire 

 dairy varies in character, the vari- 

 ation is probably owing in a great 

 measure to the difficulty in securing 

 a uniform temperature in the oven 

 each night in succession. 



The distinguishing flavour of 

 Cheshire cheese is considered to be 

 owing to the soil of the keuper marl, 



FIG. 22.-CHKESE STAND. or new red sandstone, and in some 

 districts to the presence of alkaline 



influences. In this event, it would seem probable that the 

 development of acidity in the curd will be less easy than where 

 such influences do not exist. The relatively high tempera- 

 ture at which the milk in many dairies is "set" for coagulation 

 inferentially points to the influence of the great salt deposits, 

 and is, of course^ the teaching of experience. 



To this question of acidity, therefore, it would seem fitting 

 that the attention of Cheshire cheese-makers may be specially 

 directed, on the supposition that the milk of some parts of the 

 county is more alkaline than is usually the case elsewhere. 

 This, indeed, is an interesting point, which well deserves careful 

 and extended investigation. 



