CHEESE-TONGS MILKING. 



or have too much play, so as to incline, or become 

 tottering, leaning to the one side or the other, and 

 not fall perpendicularly upon the cheese-board, one 

 side of the cheese will not only be thicker than the 

 other, but one side may be thoroughly pressed, 

 while the other is left soft and spongy. In the com- 

 mon dairies, where both butter and cheese are made 

 in the same place, an exception should be observed 

 with regard to the cheese-press, which should never 

 be fixed where the milk and butter are kept, as 

 they are liable to be affected by acid evaporations 

 from the whey and curd. The CHEESE-TONGS, a 

 kind of wooden frame, are occasionally placed on 

 the tub, when the vat is upon it, and the whey 

 draining from the curd. 



Making fine cheeses, even from the best herbage 

 and the richest milk, is a critical business, depend- 

 ent on a variety of incidental circumstances. The 

 cows should ever be milked, during the summer 

 season, very early in the morning, and at the latest 

 convenience in the afternoon, in order to avoid the 

 ill effects of the solar heat. Again, the cows should 

 not be driven any considerable distance to be 

 milked, by which the milk becomes heated in the 

 udder ; nor should the milk be carried any distance, 

 as the motion and agitation occasioned by carriage, 

 has nearly the effect of churning it into butter, and 

 rendering it unfit to be made into cheese. Milk in 

 this buttery state will often be four or five hours 

 before it will curdle, and here we have the cause of 

 that defect on cheese, called hoven, or split. It is 

 one of the greatest advantages in a cheese dairy, to 



