THE GENESEE FARMER. 



279 



from that used in cheese-making, being made of tin, 

 with holes in it to let the milli run out that may be 

 taken up with the cream. 



The butter-scales, prints, and butter-boards, are of 

 maple. The boards for making up the butter in 

 half-pound rolls are about one foot long and nine 

 inches wide. The barrel-churn is made of the best 

 oak, and great attention is paid to its cleanliness. 

 The butter-milk is never allowed to remain in it, but 

 it is washed, scalded and put up to dry as soon as the 

 butter is taken out. 



Milking. — This is performed in three separate 

 courts, to which the cows come from their several 

 field.s. The milkings should be as near as possible at 

 equal divisions ot the day, commencing at about four 

 o'clock in the morning and three in the afternoon. 

 To each milker eight cows are assigned, and one man 

 carries the milk from all the milkers to the dairy. 

 The milking should be finished in an hour. The 

 dairy-maid sees that the milkers do their duty, and 

 that all the cows are milked clean ; for the milk that 

 comes last is the richest ; and besides, if the cows 

 are not clean milked, there v,^\\ be a gradual diminu- 

 tion of the milk perceptible daily ; for these reasons, 

 the greatest care is taken that the cows are clean 

 milked. 



Cheese-making. — The cheese-tub being put in its 

 place in the dairy, the ladder is put across it, and a 

 large thin canvas cloth covers the whole tub and 

 ladder to catch any of the milk that may drop from 

 the pail, and to prevent dirt from falling into the tub- 

 Above this and upon the ladder is placed the sieve, 

 through which the milk is strained. If the milk 

 should not be of the temperature of 85 deg., a por- 

 tion of it is put into a deep tin, kept for the purpose, 

 and placed in a furnace of hot-water in the wash- 

 house, by which means the whole is warmed to a 

 proper degree. It is of the utmost moment to at- 

 tend to this ; for if the milk is not warm enough 

 when the rennet is put into it, the cheese will be 

 " tender," and will bulge out in the edge, which spoils 

 its appearance ; and a great quantity of sediment of 

 small curd will be found in the whey leads, which is 

 so much curd lost. If, on the other hand, the milk 

 is too warm, it will cause the cheese to "heave," or 

 ferment, which injures both its appearance and quality. 



When the milk is sufficiently warm, the coloring 

 and the rennet are put into it. The coloring anatto 

 is put in by rubbing a cake of it on a plate among 

 the milk, until, from its appearance, it seems colored 

 enough. One pound of anatto, at five shillings, is 

 sufficient for half a ton of cheese. 



The rennet being added immediately after the 

 anatto is put in, the tub is covered with a woolen 

 cloth for at lpa.st an hour. Rennet, or runnet, is 

 made from the stomachs of calves, called here " veils." 

 Irish veils are the best ; they are cured and sent to 

 England, and sold by the grocers to the dairy-farmers. 

 Mrs. Haywaro never uses them till they are twelve 

 months old ; for, if they are not old, the rennet made 

 from them causes the cheese to " heave," and to be- 

 come full of " eyes," or holes. She prepares the ren- 

 net from them by adding to every sLx veils two gallons 

 of brine and two lemons. The lemons do away with 

 any disagreeable smell, and give the rennet sweetness 

 aa'd agreeable flavor. Twenty or thirty gallons of it 



are made at a time, and it is found to be much better 

 when made in large quantities. It should never be 

 used until it has stood for at least two months. 



When the curd is sufKciently firm for breaking, it 

 is g"cntly and slowly cut with a three-bladed knife, 

 down to the bottom of the tub (the knife being about 

 fourteen inches long), both ways or at right angles, 

 and around the sides of the tub. The cuts should 

 be about an inch apart. When it has stood five or 

 ten minutes to allow it to sink a little, and the whey 

 to come out as clear as possible, some of the whey is 

 dipped out of it with a bowl, and the curd is cut a 

 second time with the three-bladed knife — very slowlj 

 to begin with, for if the cutting is done hurriedly, a 

 great sediment of a very small curd will pass through 

 the sieve, and be found in the whey-leads, and there 

 will also be an increase of the quantity of whey -but- 

 ter which should have been in the cheese, and the 

 value of the butter, thus obtained, will noC compen- 

 sate for the waste of curd, and for the loss of credit 

 which the cheese will sustain from the abstraction of 

 butter from it. The cutting being, therefore, per- 

 formed very slowly at first, and with the strokes of 

 the knife at a considerable distance from each other, 

 is gradually quickened, and the strokes are taken 

 nearer and nearer every time. At last one hand with 

 the skimming-dish keeps the whole in motion, turn- 

 ing up the lumps suspended in the whey, while the 

 other, with the knife, is in constant motion, cutting 

 them as small as possible ; and this operation is con- 

 tinued till no more lumps are brought to the surfiice; 

 and the whole mass is reduced to one degree of fine- 

 ness. This process may occupy a quarter of an hour. 



The curd is now allowed to stand a quarter of an 

 hour, and being thus sul!icieutly settled, the whey is 

 taken from it with the bowl, and poured through a 

 very fine hair sieve, placed over the whey-leads. When 

 the greatest part of the whey has been separated 

 from it, the dairy-maid, folding over a portion of it, 

 and beginning at one corner, goes around the tub, 

 cutting the curd in lumps, and laying them on the 

 principal mass, by which operation the mass is carried 

 all round the tub, and most of the remaining whey 

 escapes between the cut fragments, as they lie and 

 press upon each other. From time to time the whey 

 is taken from the tub, and put through the sieve into 

 the whey-leads. 



The curd is then put into vats, and pressed down 

 with the hand. The vats, being covered with cheese 

 cloths about one yard and a quarter long, of fine 

 canvass, are placed in the press for half an hour, when 

 they are taken out, and the curd cut into slices, and 

 put into a mill fixed on the top of the tub, which 

 tears it into verj' small crumbs, as small as vetches. 

 This mill, which is of Mr. IIaywaro's construction, is 

 a great improvement in the making of cheese, not 

 only as it saves the dairy-maid the most laborious 

 part of the process, that of squeezing and rubbing 

 the curd into small crumbs with her hands, but as it 

 allows the butter to remain in the cheese, which the 

 hands squeeze out. 



In its pulverized state, it is customary with most 

 daiiy-raaids to scald the curd with hot whey, but Mrs. 

 Hayward considers cheese richer when made without 

 scalding the broken curd, this washing the fat out of 

 it. She therefore, without scalding it, puts it into 



