216 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



is added two or three sliced lemons, and, after 

 standing a few weeks, the liquor is bottled for use. 

 It is not used till two months old ; and, the older it is, 

 the better it is considered. In some dairies, cloves, 

 sage, and other aromatics are added to the rennet 

 with the lemon. A stone jug that will cork tight is 

 best for the preservation of rennet, as the air should 

 be carefully excluded after it is once prepared. 



To produce uniformity in the quality of cheese, 

 the milk should be of a uniform temperature when 

 the rennet is applied. This, in most cases, is left to 

 chance, the hand of the dairy- woman being the only 

 guide ; whereas a thermometer ought always to be 

 used, and whatever rate is adopted as the standard, 

 the milk of each day should be made to conform to 

 the rule. At the Heyward farm, and in others where 

 double Gloucester is made, the standard is 85°. 

 From that it ranges to 95o, which is the highest ad- 

 missible in the manufacture of cheese, as a greater 

 degree of heat renders the curd too hard and firm. 

 Should the milk, when brought from the cows, and 

 placed in a tub or vat for being converted into curd, 

 be found to have sunk below the proper temperature, 

 a quantity must be warmed sufficient to raise the 

 whole to the desired point. 



To a neglect of these two things, quality of the 

 rennet and proper temperature of the milk, we be- 

 lieve most of the defects in our cheese are owing ; 

 and, were these difficulties obviated, we have no 

 doubt that many of our dairies would produce cheese 

 of uniformly good quality. Now, in purchasing a 

 lot of cheese, the buyer is pretty certain of getting 

 some that will be first-rate, some that are middling, 

 and some that would choke a dog, so hard and tough 

 are they. We read not long since, in some of the 

 scientific journals, that the Germans had succeeded 

 in converting pine boards into very palatable sixpen- 

 ny loaves ; and had they asserted that the same per- 

 sons had converted a white-oak plank into chsese, 



