10 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No.l. 



dividend be now made to the proprietors of £4 

 10s. Od. per £100 share amounting to £35,850. 

 That £3000 be appropriated to the relaying of 

 the way with slronger rails and that the remaining 

 sum of £1651 17s. 7d. be carried as general ba- 

 lance to the next half year's account. 



Extracts from the last edition of the "Complete Grazier." 



ON THE ECOXOMY AND MANAGEMENT OF 

 THE DAIRY. 



Of the making and preservation of Cheese. 



The goodness of cheese, as well as of butter, 

 depends much on the quality of the milk; though 

 the season, and particular process adopted in ma- 

 king it, also, have a very considerable influence 

 upon it in this respect — more perhaps than the 

 material of which it is prepared. We shall, 

 therefore, briefly notice these circumstances; and, 

 as different modes of making cheese are practised 

 in different counties or places, we shall then con- 

 cisely state those which are more particularly de- 

 serving of notice. 



The best season for this purpose is from the 

 commencement of May till the close of Septem- 

 ber; or, under lavorable circumstances, till the 

 middle of October; during which interval cows 

 are, or can in general, be pastured. In many 

 large dairies, indeed, cheese is often manufactured 

 all the year round; but the winter cheeses are 

 much inferior in quality to those made during the 

 summer months; though there is no doubt but that 

 good cheese may be made throughout the year, 

 provided the cows be well fed in the winter. It is 

 also worthy of attention, that milk abounds most 

 in caseous matter during the spring, and with the 

 butyraceous in summer and autumn. 



After milk has been exposed for a certain time to 

 the air — generally two or three days, according to 

 the season — it becomes sour and coagulates. The 

 curd which is thus formed may then be either 

 made into butter, by the process of churning, as 

 already detailed in the preceding chapter, or, be- 

 ing merely broken, the serum, or whey, separates 

 from it, and, by means of pressure, it becomes 

 cheese. The curd thus formed, being composed 

 of both the caseous and the butyraceous matter 

 combined, constitutes the richest, or what is com- 

 monly termed full-milk cheese: that produced by 

 the curd which remains after the cream has been 

 taken off, is necessarily more poor, in consequence 

 of the abstraction of the butyraceous substance, 

 and is termed skim-milk cheese: but there is no 

 material difference in the mode of making either. 

 It having, however, been found, that cheese made 

 from sour milk is hard and ill -flavored, means have 

 been devised to curdle it while sweet. With this 

 view various substances have been employed, but 

 the most effectual hitherto discovered, and conse- 

 quently the most generally used, is taken from the 

 stomach of calves — denominated rennet; and, as 

 no good cheese can be made without it, great at- 

 tention is necessary in preparing it for coagulating 

 the milk. Strictly speaking, rennet is the coagu- 

 lated lacteous matter, or substance, found in the 

 stomachs or maws of calves that have been fed 

 only with milk, though it is, in a more extensive 

 sense, applied to the bait, veil, maw, or, stomach, as 

 >t is variously termed, which possesses the same 



properties; and which is now invariably used for 

 that purpose. 



Dairy women usually preserve the maw, and 

 the curd contained in it, after salting them, and 

 then, by steeping this bag and curd, make a ren- 

 net, to turn their milk for making cheese. But a 

 more simple method, and which is equally good 

 in every respect, is to throw away the curd, and, 

 after steeping it in pickle, stretch out the maw 

 upon a slender bow inserted into it, which will 

 soon be very dry, and keep well for a long time. 

 An inch or two of the maw thus dried, is steeped 

 over night in a few spoonsful of warm water, 

 which water serves full as well as if the curd had 

 been preserved for turning the milk. It is said 

 that one inch will serve for the milk of five cows. 

 However, as the quality of the rennet is of con- 

 siderable importance, inthe manufacture of cheese, 

 we shall here mention a few of the most approved 

 methods of its preparation. That recommended 

 by the late Mr. Marshall is as follows: — 



"Take the maw of a newly killed calf, and clean it 

 of its contents: salt the bag, and put it into an earthen 

 jar for three or four days, till it form a pickle; then take 

 it from the jar, and hang it up to dry, after which it is 

 to be replaced in the jar, (the covering of which should 

 be pierced with a few small holes to admit air,) and 

 let it remain there for about twelve months. 



When wanted for use, a handful each of the leaves 

 of sweet-briar, dog-rose, and bramble, with three or 

 four handfuls of salt, are to be boiled together in a 

 gallon of water, for a quarter of an hour, when the 

 liquid is to be strained oh"' and allowed to cool. The 

 maw is then to be put inlo that liquid, together with a 

 lemon stuck round with cloves; and the longer it re- 

 mains in it, the stronger and better will be the rennet. 

 Half a pint or less of the liquor is sufficient to turn 

 50 gallons of milk." 



The above is much used in Gloucestershire. In 

 Scotland, according to Mr. Aiton, so far from 

 throwing away the curdled milk found in the sto- 

 mach of the calves, or washing away the chyle, 

 both are carefully preserved, and are supposed to 

 form a more powerful rennet than can be drawn 

 from the bag alone. It is prepared thus: — 



"When the stomach, or bag — usually termed the 

 yirning — is taken from the calf's body, its contents 

 are examined, and if any straw or other food be found 

 among the curdled milk, such impurity is carefully re- 

 moved; but all the curdled milk found in the bag is 

 carefully preserved, and no part of the chyle is washed 

 out. A considerable quantity of salt — at least two 

 handfuls — is put into and outside the bag, which is 

 then rolled up, and hung near a fire to dry: itis always 

 allowed to hang till it is well dried, and is understood 

 to be improved by hanging a year, or longer, before 

 being infused. 



When rennet is wanted, the yirning, with its con- 

 tents, is cut' small and put into a jar with a handful or 

 two of salt; and a quantity of soft water that has been 

 boiled, and cooled to about 65°, or of new whey taken 

 oft the curd is poured upon it. The quantity of wa- 

 ter, or whey, to infuse the bag, is more or less accord- 

 ing to the quality of the yirning: if itis that of anew- 

 dropped calf, a Scots choppin, or at most three Eng- 

 lish pints, will be enough; but if the calf has been fed 

 four or five weeks, two quarts or more may be used. 

 The yirning of a calf four weeks old yields more ren- 

 net than that of one twice that age. When the infu- 

 sion has remained in the jar from one to three days, the 

 liquid is drawn off, and strained, after which it is bot- 

 tled for use; and if a dram-glass of any ardent spirit 

 be put into each glass, the infusion may either be used 

 immediately, or kept as long as may be convenient." 



