CATTLE. 147 



packed down solid, while it is frcsli and sweet ; and as there is usually 

 a diversity of color, g'reat pains should be taken to keep each shade by 

 itself. To accomplish this, several packao-es may be filling at the same 

 time, each one receiving its respective shade ; so that when they are full, 

 it will bore uniform in color upon the trier. A clean linen cloth, thoroughly 

 stiturated with strong brine, should be laid on the top, and a slight layer 

 of moistened salt upon it. This not only preserves the butter, but gives 

 to it a neat appearance. 



"Nothing pleases commission merchants more than to receive a 

 strictly fine dairy of butter — sweet, yellow, rosy to the smell, and delicious 

 to the taste. It sells readily at a satisfactory price, and every body is 

 pleased, from producer to consumer. Common and inferior butter sticks, 

 notwithstanding its gi-easiness, at every stage, causing dissatisfaction and 

 trouble from beginning to end. It is either over-salted, under-salted, 

 colorless, milky, sticky, strong, rank or rancid, or all these combined — 

 at any rate, it is not what it should be, and is consequently unsalable." 



Cliecse and Cheese Making. — In the making of cheese there are certain 

 general principles which are essential, but slight variation in the pro- 

 cess produces cheeses of very different qualities ; and although the most 

 important circumstance is the nature of the pasture on which the cows 

 are fed, yet much depends on the mode in which the different stages of 

 the fabrication are managed ; and hence the great superiority of the 

 cheeses of particular districts or dairies over those of others, without 

 any apparent difference in the pasture. In those countries where the 

 cows are chiefly kept tied up in stalls, and are fed with a variety of 

 natural and artificial grasses, roots, and vegetables, superior cheese is 

 often made. 



The first process in making cheese is to separate the curd from the 

 whey, which may be done by allowing the milk to become sour ; but the 

 cheese is inferior in quality, and it is difficult to stop the acid fermenta- 

 tion and prevent its running into the putrefactive. Various substances 

 added to milk will soon separate the curd from the whey. All acids curdle 

 milk. Muriatic acid is used with success for this purpose in Holland. 

 Some vegetables contain acids which readily coagulate milk, such as the 

 juice of the fig-tree, and the flowers of the Galium verum, or yellow 

 lady's bed-straw, hence called cheese-rennet. Where better rennet can- 

 not be procured, they may be substituted for the best curdler of milk, 

 which is the gastric juice of the stomach of a sucking calf. This juice 

 rapidly coagulates the milk as the calf sucks ; and the only difficulty is 

 in collecting and keeping it from putrefaction, which begins from the 

 instant the stomach is taken from the calf. The preparation of the 

 rennet, as it is called, is a most important part of the process of cheese- 

 making. The following may be considered as tlie simplest, and perhaps 

 the best. As soon as a sucking calf is killed, the stomach should be 

 taken out, and if the calf has sucked lately, it is all the better. The 

 outer skin should be well scraped, and all fat and useless membranes 

 carefully removed. It is only the inner coat which must be preserved. 

 The coagulated milk should be taken out and examined ; and any sub- 

 stance besides curd found in it should be carefully removed. The serum 

 left in it should be pressed out with a cloth. It should then be replaced 



