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CATTLE THE DAIRY. 869 



oral idea can be gleaned from books, for the art of making the 

 best cheese is one that must be learned by dint of labor and 

 acquired by long practice. To make full stock cheese, the 

 night's milk is not cooled any more than is necessary to keep 

 it from changing, and in the morning the morning's mess is 

 added to it, and the mass is warmed up to' eighty-four degrees, 

 when the rennet is thoroughly stirred into the milk, and after 

 coagulation takes place, which should not be sooner than from 

 thirty to forty-five minutes, it is cut up and partially wheyed 

 off. It is then scalded up to ninety-six degrees, the mass being 

 constantly stirred to even and thoroughly cook the curds. Be- 

 fore acidity shows, which it is sure to do after a certain time, 

 the whey is drawn off and the curd " banked up " to take on a 

 slight acidity and "break" down by the action of the air. The 

 curd is then cut in pieces about the size of loaves of bread and 

 run through a curd mill, which cuts it in small cubes, and is then 

 salted at the rate of three pounds to each one hundred pounds 

 of curd. The custom of developing acidity in curds before re- 

 moving from the whey is being modified to a great extent, and 

 it is now held that the most perfect acidity is obtained by ex- 

 posure to the air, a process called by Professor Arnold " oxida- 

 tion." If the whey is run off sweet, any bad flavors or influ- 

 ences which might have existed in the milk is carried with it, 

 and not cooked into curds. If the curds sour in the whey, the 

 developed acid neutralizes in part the fats, and a proportion of 

 the mineral matters are released, detracting both from its di- 

 gestibility and richness, arid a dryer, harder cheese results. 



The Curing Room. The furnishing of factories with 

 special curing rooms is essential, for the perfect curing of cheese 

 demands a room, not abounding in light, one that is not subject 

 to changes of temperature, but so arranged that the thermometer 

 will indicate without much change seventy degrees. The air 

 must not be dry, but a free circulation needs to be maintained. 

 The devices of the curing room have been many, but as yet the 

 shelf made of a wide, white-wood board is holding its own 

 against all patented improvements, as a table or rack on which 

 to cure cheese, though they need frequent scraping and scouring. 



