CHAP. vin. CHEESE FACTORIES. 357 



" acid." Singular to say, the whey left after the butter has been made 

 from it is said to be better adapted for swine-feeding purposes than 

 ordinary whey ; this is owing to the sugar of milk being retained 

 longer in the mass without change. 



Having described the process of butter-making on the factory 

 system, we shall now glance as briefly as may be at the details of 

 cheese-making, taking as our " model " the example afforded by the 

 Holms factory in Staffordshire which is fully described by Mr. Morton 

 in the paper we have already quoted from, and named below. 



We shall in the course of this chapter (page 360) describe the ice 

 method of cooling milk for a butter-making factory, as employed in 

 Sweden. We here describe the " cooling " system as adopted in the 

 Holms factory, near Sheen, full particulars (supplied by Professor 

 J. P. Sheldon) of the working of which will be found in a valuable 

 paper (" Cheese-making in Home Dairies and Factories ") by Mr. 

 J. C. Morton, in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of 

 England, vol. xi. second series (1875), page 261. 



The cooling vats are of timber, having a milk-holding capacity of 

 500 gallons, the length of each vat being some 14 feet, width 4 feet, and 

 depth 20 inches. Each vat is lined with tin, or rather has an interior 

 tin vat, the dimensions of which are so much less than those of the main 

 or timber vat, that a hollow space is left at the bottom and sides. The 

 milk is placed in bulk within the tin vat, and cold water, passed into 

 the jacket at one end, passes through the whole length of the space and 

 out at the other. The evening's milk, placed in the vats, is thus sur- 

 rounded with cold water, and kept exposed to it all the night through. 

 To prevent the cream from rising and also to aerate the milk, and to 

 get rid further of any animal or other odour which may be present in 

 it, wooden stirrers which sink to a depth of two inches in the milk 

 in the vats are caused to move to and fro at regular intervals. The 

 stirrers are moved by an ingenious arrangement. The issuing water 

 from the vat, entering one of the buckets of a small water-wheel, fills 

 this till it has weight sufficient to give the wheel half a revolution on 

 its axis. By means of a crank and connecting rod, this motion is 

 communicated to the stirrer. 



The milk delivered in the evening, and thus set aside to cool, is 

 reduced in temperature by, and generally before, morning to 60 or 65 F. 

 The morning's milk does not require to be passed through the same 

 long cooling process, but is at once mixed with the evening's milk. 

 When mixed, steam is introduced under vat No. 1 the cold water 

 having been of course previously withdrawn and the temperature of 

 the milk is raised to about 80 in the summer or warm weather, and 

 82 in the winter or cold weather. The rennet which is proportioned 

 to circumstances, but which if in proper condition should be at the rate 

 of half a pint to every 100 gallons of milk is then put into the vat, 

 and well mixed ; and the vats are next covered up with a cloth, to keep 

 in the heat and maintain a uniform temperature. If the rennet is 

 good, it should thicken the milk perceptibly in fifteen minutes, and 

 thoroughly coagulate it in one hour. 



