418 



FARMERS' REGISTER— CHEESE MAKING. 



trunk. Lime mortar mixed with sulphur in found 

 good." 



Now, Mr. Editor, if these fow disjointed re- 

 marks be thouo:lit of any utility, they are at your 

 service. But I would beg leave, at all events, to 

 sug<^est the propriety of correcting a statement 

 which might puzzle some inexperienced hand, and 

 give him an erroneous idea of these insects, which 

 agree, I believe, only in one particular, that, viz. 

 of doing all possible injury to our fruit trees. 



I am, sir, with great respect, 



Yourobd't serv't. 



M. A. 



CHEESE MAKIKG. 



From the New York F.inner. 



This article is submitted as a demonstration of 

 ■what can be effected in our country, by commu- 

 nity of exertion and enterprise, directed to one 

 staple commodity ; and also what extraordinary 

 impulse has been given in a few years to one de- 

 partment of agriculture, in a small section, by 

 the facilities of transportation on the Erie Canal. 

 Heavy produce is transported from Utica to New 

 York for 25 cents per 100 lbs. on large contracts, 

 this season. 



Much public and general inquiry has, of late, 

 been excited, by the rapid increase, extension, 

 and improvement in cheese-making, in a district 

 of about twenty miles in length, and ten or twelve 

 in breadth, chiefly within, and parts of the towns 

 of Salisbury, Norway, Fairfield, Newport, Rus- 

 sia, and Trenton — and of butter-making in the 

 town of Steuben ; being the second tier or range 

 of towns on the north side of Mohawk river, and 

 within the counties of Herkimer and Oneida. 

 A sparse population Vvas spread over all these 

 towns as early as the year 1800, and in 1815 had 

 become a well-settled country, emigrating to the 

 ■west; and at that period, and even till the com- 

 pletion of the Erie canal, cheese, as an article of 

 commerce, over and above the home consumption, 

 was an item little thought of or known. 



It is supposed that less than 60 tons were annu- 

 ally exported from this district at that period, and 

 this was chiefly confined in its manufacture to a 

 few families in Norway. This district is hilly, 

 well watered, and better adapted to grazing than 

 to any other department of agriculture ; and with- 

 out recourse to records, it is supposed that it may 

 have doubled its population since 1815 ; and it is 

 now ascertained that in 1832, though an unfiivor- 

 able season for making, there was exported, the 

 manufacture of this district, more than one thou- 

 sand tons of cheese, besides twenty-five tons of 

 pine-apple cheese. Mr. H. Burrell, of Salisbury, 

 sold in New York market near 400 tons of the 

 same. In the art of cheese-making, improvement 

 has advanced in this district far towards Avliat, in 

 this age, is known of perfection, as will be ac- 

 knowledged or attested by the extensive cheese 

 merchants in New York, Philadelphia, and the 

 cities south. 



Steuben early settled by that noted Baron, is 

 much inhabited by emigrants from Wales, and 

 their descendants; has long been almost exclu- 

 sively devoted to butter-making ; and, although a 

 small town, sent, in 1832, one hundred and fifty 

 ions of butter to New York market — which, as 



an article to keep good in tubs and firkins, stands 

 high in market. Indeed, some small sections of 

 the said cheese district make butter only. 



Tlie writer of this article was bred a farmer, 

 and from the year 1806 to 1813 made a cheese 

 dairy on the farm whereon he now lives, from 

 twenty, and some years from thirty cows. Cheese 

 was then a dull article, and he relinquished that 

 business; and again, in 1828, commenced on a 

 cheese dairy of forty cows, and now has, on the 

 same farm, eighty cows. Inquiries are often made 

 as to theory, and statistical facts, pertaining to this 

 subject, from friends and acquaintances, both near 

 and remote, and he has been requested to commu- 

 nicate in writing the modern process of making, 

 as practised by himself and maily others, at this 

 day, and also to point out as distinctly as might 

 be, the difference between the former and the lat- 

 ter process. This has been done, by saying that 

 less heat, and some less salt, is applied in the 

 making, and the cheese made softer, and is kept 

 from spreading and cracking, by swathing, soon 

 after the cheese comes from the press. The milk, 

 in warm weather, is not considerably below the 

 warmth of milk directly from the cow. The ren- 

 net must be free of taint, and made in such quan- 

 tity as to last several weeks, that its power can be 

 relied upon to "fetch the cheese," in three quar- 

 ters of an hour, or be sure in an hour, so as to 

 " break up," which is done with the hands, from 

 bottom to top of the tub or vat, or with an utensil 

 made of fine brass wire, with a sharp iron or brass 

 rim, in squares of three quarters of an inch, like a 

 sieve, with two high bales crossing each other on 

 the top, and reaching above the top of the tub ; 

 when broken up, it is then left for a little time, till 

 the curd settles, and the whey rises on the top; 

 then begin to draw or dip off, and of the first put 

 some over the fire, and with it, as soon as may be, 

 gradually increase the warmth in the tub, work- 

 ing off the whey and making fine the curd, endea- 

 voring always so to manage that the Avhey is as 

 green as possible. It is a conceded fact, that the 

 greener the whey the richer the cheese. If the 

 weather be hot, and there be any appearance of 

 souring in the tub, the process must be hurried, 

 and less heat applied, or the cheese will be hard 

 and dry, and the yield small in proportion. For 

 the last half hour, we have, in warm weather, 

 about milk or animal heat in the tub or vat, 

 and this is called the scalding process, which, if 

 all works well, is done in about two hours from 

 the setting, and ready to dip off into the cheese 

 basket or cinque. It has, I believe been a gene- 

 ral practice to cool off the curd while in the tub, 

 with cool whey or water, or the cheese will be 

 rank, but we do not so; we let the cheese go to 

 the press with its warmth, except what is impart- 

 ed by making it fine and stirring in the salt, and 

 think it closes better, and needs much less scalding, 

 and is not so liable to be porous and spongy. We 

 put two pounds of dry Onondaga salt to 100 lbs. of 

 curd, pressed and worked so fine and dry that not 

 more than two quarts of whey can be extracted 

 by the press. We choose to have our cheese made 

 so soft as to need swathing the first or second day ; 

 and if the weather be very hot, very soon after 

 they come from the press. This is done with 

 cheap cotton cloth, stained with annotto, and dip- 

 ped in melted lard, and, by some cased entirely 

 over, there to remain till the cheese goes to mar- 



