128* SKETCHES OP RURAL AFFAIRS. 



persons who consider such mouldiness a dainty. After 

 being in the cheese-room for about ten days, the cheeses 

 are washed and scraped . To shorten the labour of turning 

 cheeses in drying them, an invention called a swing- 

 frame is now used in large dairies. By this, it is said, 

 fifty-five cheeses can be turned in the time required 

 to turn two by the hand. It consists of a dozen strong 

 shelves framed together, and having bars nailed from 

 top to bottom of one side of the back of the shelves, in 

 order to prevent the cheese from falling out while in the 

 act of turning. The frame is suspended on two strong 

 pivots, one of which is let into the wall of the room, and 

 the other is supported by a strong post. Two catches keep 

 the frame upright, and prevent it from being turned 

 more than half round. By first filling the shelf imme- 

 diately below the axis of the frame, and then placing the 

 cheeses alternately on the two nearest shelves above and 

 below, that which has been already filled, the preponder- 

 ance of one side over the other can never be more than 

 one cheese ; the whole power, therefore, required to turn 

 the machine, cannot, in any circumstances, be greater 

 than this and the friction of the pivots. The cheeses 

 in the act of turning drop on those shelves which, in the 

 former position of the frame, were above them, and which 

 having been exposed to a current of air for twenty-four 

 hours previous, have become dry. 



The above will give a general idea of the process of 

 cheese-making, although particular dairies have methods 

 of their own. For instance, in making Stilton cheese, 

 the cream of the evening's milk is added to the morn- 

 ing's milk, to enrich it, the rennet is very pure, the 

 curd is not so much pressed as in other cheeses, and the 

 form of the mould, or vat, is much deeper, while the 

 circumference is less. While the cheese is drying, it 

 is occasionally powdered with flour, and plunged into 

 hot water, which hardens the outer coat, and helps to 

 ripen the cheese. Stilton cheeses made in Leicestershire, 

 Derby, Chedder, and some other cheeses, are never 



