It 13 scarcely necessary to premise that milk, 

 from which cheese is made, consists of three 

 distinct parts — cream, curd, and u-hei/ — into 

 which, by repose, it spontaneously separates ; 

 but the process of separating the whey from the 

 otlier bodies may, as in cheese-makingr, be ac- 

 celerated by infusing a small quantity of a sim- 

 ple acid extracted from cured and dried mavy- 

 skins,* which have been previouslj- dissolved in 

 warm water. This infusion is commonly called 

 "steep," but more properly rennet. 



The art of cheese-making consists in the com- 

 plete extraction of the whey and in the proper 

 compacting and curing of the curd. The rich- 

 ness of the cheese depends upon the quality of 

 tlie milk, or, in other words, on the proportion 

 of cream which the milk contains. The cheese 

 of Cheshire is professedly made from new milk, 

 or milk IVoai which no cream has been taken. — 

 It is. however, well known, that in many dairies, 

 in the morning before cheese making, a sniall 

 quantity of cr(;am is skimmed oft' the previous 

 evening's milk ; this cream is either churned by 

 itself, or mixed with whey-cream, by ^s•hich 

 there is obtained a better quality and greater 

 quantity of (so-called) whey-butter. It may ap- 

 pear sinsrular to some, that any portion of cream 

 should be found in whey, but such is the fact, 

 and the means used in Cheshire for extracting 

 it are very simple (See Appendix. J 



Before entering into a detailed description of 

 the mode employed m Cheshire in the making 

 of cheese, I would remark that tl^ Essay is 

 founded upon my own obsers'ations, made dur- 

 ing a fifteen years' residence in, and intimate 

 connexion with, that county ; ^vhich latter is still 

 existing. I have long felt an interest in the sub- 

 ject of cheese-making, with a desire to see it 

 conducteii upon more scientific principles, from 

 a conviction that, were such the case, both the 

 pocket of the producer and the stomach of the 

 consumer would often be more agreeably- filled : 

 'out I do not wish it to be supposed from this re- 

 mark that I profess my.self conversant witli these 

 principles : my information being more of a 

 practical nature, and as such I offer it to the So- 

 ciety-. 



Nn.MBER OF Cows KEPT, AND PRODUCE. — 



The number of cows kept for the purposes of 

 a clieese dairy is seldom less than 8 or 10, or 

 more than 70 or 80 ; and is of course regulated 

 by the size of the farms — these average about 90 

 or 100 statute acres, upon each of which about 

 l.") or 18 cows are kept. From 18 cows, a cheese 

 of from 36 lbs. to .54 lbs. weight is made daily 

 during four or five months of the .summer.t The 

 annual produce of cheese per cow depends both 

 upon the (juality of the animal (with the mode 

 of keeping her) and of the land, or rather the 

 herba<!i\ I have kuo%vn many farmers su.slain 

 great loss by not feeding their cattle sufficiently 

 well in winter. With judicious management, 

 about 3 cwt. of cheese (of 112 lbs.) may be con- 

 sidered as the average amount made per annum 



* The .tfnvinrhs of sucking calves. Sec the method 

 of curing ilic^e in the Appendix. 



t The AJiirque.sa of Cholmoudeley and Mr. Telle- 

 mac-he, M. P., witli a laudable de.sire to encourage 

 the su.'=))i'ii.-=ion of Sunday labor, have, for several 

 f years, nfforoil throuch the South Cheshire AKricultur- 

 J al Society a prize of £"^0 to such farmer as shall have 

 J made the best cheese without infi-ina;ing on the Sab- 

 1 bath re.st. Althougli this prize ha.s, I believe, been 

 S regularly claimed, yet, from a variety of causes, the 

 > prHotice of making cheese on the -Sabbath, aa on other 

 S days, i.s .still very general. 



upon land let for 30s. [$7 5Q annual rent] a statute 

 acre ; but in a few instances 5 cwt. per cow^, 

 and even more, is .sometimes made. This cau 

 only be from a small and choice stock. 



The Season. — It is the practice amongst 

 farmers in this county to airange so as to have 

 most of their cows calving in the months of 

 March and April ; and so soon as the calves are 

 fed or dispo.sed of. the cheese-making com- 

 mences, and continues (excepting in small dai- 

 ries) to nearly the end of the year. In January 

 and February the quantity of milk obtained is 

 often so small that the farmer prefers selling it 

 in the neighboring towns or making it into but- 

 ter. There are, however, instances, in large 

 dairies (of 70 or 80 cows), of cheese being made 

 throughout the year. 



Milking. — The operation commences about 

 five o'clock in the morning, and five or six in the 

 evening. In this county it is the practice for 

 most of the servants, both men and maids, to as- 

 sist, and lor the cows to be milked iu the cow- 

 houses (called here " shippons '') all the year 

 round. When, as is usual, there is one milker 

 for everj- six or seven cows, the milking seldom 

 exceeds an hour and a quarter.* 



The milk of new-calved cows is not mixed 

 with the other until about four or five days after 

 calving. 



Offices and Utensils. — As the evening's 

 milk is seldom made into cheese until the fol- 

 lowing morning, and sometimes in small dairies 

 (where four " meals " are used) not until the sec- 

 ond morning, a cool "milk-house" ia necessary ; 

 on which account it usually occupies tliat side of 

 the farm-house least expo-sed to the sun. The uten- 

 sils in which the milk is kept are usually port- 

 able shallow earthenware vessels called " pan- 

 mug.s," and in some dairies leaden or zinc cool- 

 ers. Most of the milk-rooms have lattice or wire 

 windows for the circulation of air, and the floors 

 are laid in a sloping fonn for the free escape of 

 the cold water with which they are daily swilled 

 throughout the summer months. If precautions 

 of this nature be not attended to, there is a ri.sk 

 of the evening's milk becoming suur ; in which 

 case, whatever quantity of new milk be added 

 to it in the morning, the cheese v^ill hcnonr also. 

 I am led to believe that a temperature of as near 

 50^ Fahrenheit as could be maintained, would 

 be best for a milk-house throughout the year. — 

 The dairy is generally situate near the milk- 

 house, andi fitted up with two xet-pan$, or boilersf 

 — a large one for scalding the v\-hey, and a 

 .smaller one for heating water. The ''chee.^e- 

 presses " and "screw" are kept within this 

 room, and the operation of cheese-inaking is 

 here carried on. Some fannhouses are not pro- 

 vided with a dairy, and the cheese is then made 

 in the kitchen — this is commonly the case on 

 small farms. The " salting and drying-house" 

 (often one and the same room), if conveniently 

 situated, adjoins the dairj-. The cheese is 

 placed here on stone or wooden benches, salted 

 exIernaVy. and is afterwards left so as to dry 

 gradually before being removed to the clieese- 

 room. By some dairy-maids, this external salt- 

 ing is dispensed with, and the room is then of 



* I was told by an apparently very respectable man, 

 at Saratoga Springs last week, that he knew a New- 

 York fanner, worth more than $200,000. whose 

 daughters milked the cows regularly. [Ed. F. L. 



t South of New-Jersey, milk-house and daii-y are 

 .sjTionymous. [Ed. h". £. 



