CHEESE-MAKING. 221 



The salt used about a cheese should be of the 

 finest and best quality, and, though many directions 

 have been given as to the quantity, there is no rule 

 so certain as that of taste in making the application 

 It should always be remembered, however, that too 

 much salt will make the cheese hard, while too lit- 

 tle will allow fermentation, and cause it to become 

 light and to spread. At each turning of the cheese, 

 fine salt must be rubbed on the outside, as it will 

 harden that part and render it less liable to crack. 



Many of our best dairies have within a few years 

 adopted the practice of swathing their cheese as 

 soon as taken from the press, or putting a strip of 

 cotton cloth round them. This precaution, where 

 the cheese is large and rich, seems mdispenable, and 

 operates most favourably in preventing spreading or 

 cracks, and shutting out mites. The expense is 

 trifling, and the results are of the best kind. What 

 is considered an improvement on this has been made 

 in some dairies. Instead of putting the bandage on 

 after the cheese comes from the press, a cloth en- 

 velope, as large as the interior of the hoop, the bot- 

 tom sewed in, and a similar piece for the top, is pre- 

 pared, and the cheese is pressed into this instead of 

 the ordinary cloths. At turning, the top piece is 

 put on and pressed in, having been first attached to 

 the other parts. In this way the form of the cheese 

 is perfectly retained, cracks are wholly prevented, 

 and all insects are excluded ; while the butter rubbed 

 on the surface acts as favourably as if the cloth were 

 not present. 



One of the best accounts of a cheese dairy, the 

 process of making, and the amount of products to 

 be found, may be seen on the 85th page of the fourth 

 volume of the Cultivator, by Mr. Smeallie, of Prince- 

 ton. 



The number of cows was twenty. Cheese-ma- 

 king commenced on the 15th of May and ended on 



