98 Farmers' Miscellany. [July, 



hence it is a great desideratum to discover by what means they 

 may be fixed and preserved in the state and condition we wish. 



A cheese for instance may be formed of proper materials, and 

 yet if placed in certain circumstances will undergo those changes 

 which will entirely destroy it. In cheese making there are two 

 great objects to be studied; first, how to make it, and second, how 

 to preserve it. 



1. How to make cheese. The preliminary points to be attend- 

 ed to are, to secure quiet cows whose milk is easily obtained. It 

 should be milked into clean pails and strained as soon after milk- 

 ing as possible through a strainer covering the tub, and properly 

 supported on a ladder. In small dairies where only one cheese is 

 made per day, of from 30 to 35 pounds, the milk remains over 

 night in the tub, and the cream which rises in the night, is skim- 

 med for butter. The morning's milk is afterwards added. The 

 milk being procured it ought to be immediately set for the cheese. 

 The first step in the process is to bring the whole to the tempera- 

 ture of 85° Fah. If it is raised to 90, the cheese may be too hard. 

 If however it is designed for distant markets, it will be safer to 

 raise it to 88, or perhaps even 90. In June, July and August, if 

 the morning's milk is strained into the night's milk without much 

 delay, the temperature will be very nearly right; but usually 

 from 10 to 20 quarts of milk, sufficient to make a cheese between 

 28 and 50 pounds, must be warmed over coals, or what is better 

 with a w^ater bath sufficiently to raise the temperature of the 

 whole to 85°. The proper temperature to which this part 

 must be raised, may be determined by calculation on the principle 

 that two liquids in equal quantities, and of the same kind though 

 of different temperature, if mixed will produce a mean of the two. 

 Ninety-eight degrees is blood heat, and hence when the liquid is 85 

 it will still feel cool. The dairyman ought to be cautious and 

 not suffer a blaze to pass up around the kettle, as it may impart a 

 bad taste lo the milk in consequence of burning it. 



After the temperature is obtained, the next step is to add the 

 rennet, and it is still a desideratum in cheese making to determine 

 hwmo uch of this substance is required for any given amount of 



