218' AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



the curd is performed ; and, after being made as fine 

 as possible, it is again put into the cloths and hoops, 

 a little hot whey or water being thown on the cloths 

 to harden the outside of the cheese and prevent it 

 from cracking. After being in the press two hours, 

 the cheese is taken out and dry cloths applied ; 

 and the same operation of turning and dry cloths 

 is repeated during the day. A striking peculiarity 

 in the Gloucester cheese is the manner of salting. 

 None is used until after the cheese is made and has 

 been in the press twenty-four hours ; and even then 

 no salt is applied unless the cheese is perfectly 

 closed, since, if there be any crack at the time of 

 salting, it will never close afterward. The process 

 is performed by rubbing the cheese over with finely- 

 powdered salt, after which it is returned to the press. 

 The salting is repeated three times with the single, 

 and four times with the double Gloucester, twenty- 

 four hours being allowed to intervene between each 

 salting. The double Gloucester remains in the press- 

 es five days, and the single four, when they are put 

 on a shelf or floor of the dairy, and turned twice in 

 twenty-four hours. Gloucester cheese is distin- 

 guished for its smooth, close, and waxlike texture, 

 and its very rich and mild flavour. If the curd is 

 salted before being put into the hoops, the salt has 

 the effect of giving a skin to the separate particles 

 it comes in contact with, which prevents them from 

 intimately uniting. It may be pressed together and 

 be good cheese ; but it never becomes a smooth, 

 close mass, like that which is salted after it is made, 

 being always liable to crumble when cut, a prevail- 

 ing. fault with American cheese. 



The cheese called Stilton is principally made in 

 Leicestershire, near Melton Mowbray, and the adja- 

 cent villages. It is a very rich cheese, rarely used 

 for the table until two years old, when, by becoming 

 partially decayed, blue, and moist, it acquires the 

 particular flavour which causes it to be so highly 



