THE ACID PROCESS. 187 



the vat, the range of heat necessary for obtaining the best re- 

 sults was marked by the mercury. From this point the change 

 in the process became a study, and the fact soon made itself 

 apparent that cheese-making was purely a chemical process. 

 That it was better to develop farther chemical change in the vats 

 while the curds could be under immediate observation and con- 

 trol, than to trust the necessary changes and transformations to 

 be perfected after they were put to press, or carried to the 

 cheese-room. I found that by the use of acid (sharp sour whey,) 

 in the milk, or by allowing the curds and whey to stand until 

 acidity was developed to a certain point, the watery portions of 

 the milk were more easily expelled and the curds assumed a 

 more solid texture, while flavor, mellowness and flakiness could 

 be more easily secured. 



I think our dairy farmers made a mistake in their exclusive 

 devotion to one single branch, and that a mixed agriculture, 

 making the dairy the leading branch, would have given better 

 results. 



The English dairymen, in the great dairy districts in the west 

 of England, devote but little land to meadows. They grow 

 wheat, barley and other grains. They produce wool, mutton 

 and beef. The herds in winter are fed upon chopped straw, 

 with the addition of oil-cake, bran and coarse grains. Large 

 profits are thus realized, and the land put in a high state of 

 fertility. 



Some of the Herkimer County farmers are beginning to 

 adopt this system with success. Our soil is tenacious and diffi- 

 cult to be worked, but it yields large crops of wheat, barley, 

 oats and corn. Some carry a few acres of hops, but this is not 

 generally to be recommended, as hops are an uncertain crop, 

 variable in price, and rob the farmer of the manures. Fruit 

 culture, when it can be successfully conducted, is better. One 

 of my neighbors in an adjoining towu has 5,000 pear-trees just 

 coming into bearing, and the profits from this source must be 

 large, as the fruit sells readily at from five dollars to eight dol- 

 lars per barrel. 



Upon farms where grain can be raised with facility, the sys- 

 tem of mixed husbandry in connection with the dairy, it would 

 seem, must result in the most profit. Then, if you abandon the 

 use of the " scrub native cow," and adopt the English system of 



