194 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



SOME OF THE PRINCIPLES TO BE OBSERVED IN CHEESE-MAKING. 



Ill summing up the question of cheese manufacture, I have 

 only time to notice some of the leading principles that are es- 

 sential to success. And the first is good clean milk from 

 healthy cows, well fed and well cared for. 2d. Studying the 

 condition of the milk, and understanding that condition before 

 operations commence. 3d. Setting the milk to coagulate at a 

 temperature from 72° to 82°. 4th. Drawing the whey early at 

 the commencement of any perceptible acidity. 5th. Exposing 

 the curd to the atmosphere, and allowing it to fully perfect its 

 acidity after the whey is drawn. 6th. Putting to press before 

 salting, at a temperature of 60° to 65°. 7th. Grinding in a 

 curd mill and then salting. 



BQTTER-MAKING. 



I fear I have detained you too long, but my address would 

 seem incomplete without a brief reference to butter-making. 

 It has always seemed extraordinary to me that there are so few 

 good butter-makers in the country, when the article enters into 

 such large and universal consumption, and when there is such 

 a great desire on the part of consumers to obtain that which is 

 good. 



Butter-making is not so difficult as cheese-making. Any one 

 can make good butter that is neat and cleanly, by understand- 

 ing and practising a few principles. The greatest mystery 

 about it is, to know how to set the milk and get up the cream 

 properly. Cream that rises in uneven temperatures, in bad at- 

 mospheres, where it can absorb the gases from decaying vege- 

 tables, or the many intolerable stenches often in the neighbor- 

 hood of the milk-room, cannot be expected to make good but- 

 ter, though churned and packed by an angel. We make a good 

 deal of poor butter in New York ; it is sold under the name of 

 grease. I suppose there may be occasionally a little poor butter 

 made in Massachusetts. I have tasted a vast deal of it where- 

 ever I have travelled — at hotels and upon tables of all classes of 

 people. Good butter is a luxury ; poor butter an unmitigated 

 nuisance. 



BUTTER FACTORIES. 



In the butter factories the milk-room is constructed so that 

 good ventilation is secured. It is provided with tanks for hold- 



