DAIRY SCHOOLS AND DAIRY PRODUCTS. 243 



nary Cheddar cheese is as follows : The milk is heated to 86 Fahr., 

 in the cheese vat ; one to four ounces of rennet extract is then 

 added, according to the kind of cheese desired. The rennet coagu- 

 lates the milk in less than half an hour ; when the curd is firm, it 

 is cut into small cubes by means of cheese knives, and heated 

 slowly to 98 Fahr. ; after about two hours the whey is ready to 

 be drained off, the curd put on racks, and various operations gone 

 through, of no special interest to the general reader ; it is then 

 salted (two to three pounds of salt to one thousand pounds of 

 milk containing four per cent fat), put in hoops and pressed for 

 twenty-four hours, and finally placed in the curing room. The 

 more rennet is added to the milk, the quicker the cheese will cure ; 

 the more salt, the slower it will cure. Cheddar cheese ought to 

 cure at least two months before it is put on the market, but is 

 often sold only a couple of weeks old. 



I have barely touched upon the main features in the manufac- 

 ture of dairy products in the preceding. While it does not take 

 very long to learn the important steps in their manufacture, it 

 requires good common sense and thorough knowledge of the com- 

 position and properties of dairy products and the many condi- 

 tions affecting the various processes, in order to become a suc- 

 cessful butter or cheese maker. No cast-iron rules can be laid 

 down in most cases, and no man can therefore make the kind 

 of butter and cheese that you and I like, unless he understands 

 his work thoroughly and uses good judgment in the discharge 

 of his duties. 



The dairy industry of the United States can not help receiving 

 a grand impetus through the agency of the dairy schools ; the 

 quantity of dairy products will be increased through a better 

 selection of animals, through more liberal, systematic feeding 

 and better care being taken of them, and the quality of the prod- 

 ucts will be improved by a thorough understanding of the theory 

 and practice of their manufacture. The magnitude of our dairy 

 industry makes this educational work a most important one. The 

 value of the annual product of butter and cheese made on farms 

 or in factories in the United States in 1880, according to the tenth 

 census, amounted to nearly one hundred and forty million dollars. 

 More than eight hundred million pounds of butter and two hun- 

 dred and forty million pounds of cheese were made during 1880. 

 When it is remembered that the average annual yield of butter 

 per cow in the United States does not exceed one hundred and 

 twenty-five pounds, while single herds give three and even four 

 hundred pounds a year per cow when, furthermore, the mass of 

 butter sells at an average of less than fifteen cents a pound, while 

 private parties obtain fifty cents or more a pound for their butter 

 then we understand what a grand opportunity is offered to. 



