96 Old Bays on the Farm 



Days on the Farm" chronicle, and my regret is 

 that I am not suflSciently informed regarding 

 them, to pay the proper tribute due. I recall that 

 my mother used to make cheese and that the means 

 of squeezing the curds into shape was with a long 

 board as a lever with a stone on the end. To get 

 more or less pressure the stone would be moved 

 farther from or closer to the *'chessel." That is 

 what my mother called the mould or wooden recep- 

 tacle in which the cheese was made. I have never 

 heard the word since boyhood days and I had 

 thought it was one that the Scottish folk had made 

 and copyrighted for themselves, but not so. That 

 book of words, great and small — the dictionary — 

 has it. 



Later, a small screw press was used, the fore- 

 runner of the kind used in large cheese factories. 



A CHURNING " ACCIDENT" 



I remember a square or box churn in which a 

 dasher was operated by turning a crank. There 

 was one at my home and when in use it stood on 

 two kitchen chairs. I have not forgotten that, on 

 one occasion, when I should have been churning 

 that I was playing tag instead, and accidentally 

 removed one of the chairs. The result was that the 

 churn upset, the lid opened and a gallon or two of 

 cream spread over the kitchen floor. Doubtless 

 the domestic felicities of the household were some- 

 what awry for several minutes afterward and I 



