THE CHEESE-ROOM MANAGEMENT HOVEN. 261 



fected, should be kept warm, until it have gone 

 through its sweat, and become as dry and stiff as can 

 be expected ; since that state of firmness is not only 

 forwarded by warmth, but also the ripeness and rich- 

 ness of the cheese. 



The CHEESE-ROOM or LOFT, should be dry and 

 well ventilated, but hard and soft cheeses should 

 not be deposited together in the same room, since 

 the moisture of the latter will be imparted to the 

 hard cheeses, occasion them to soften, and their 

 coats to become thick and ill coloured. On the con- 

 trary, when cheeses become too hard, whether from 

 scalding or other cause, the practice is to heap five 

 or six cheeses, one upon another in a warm room, 

 which can be ventilated, and to turn them daily. 

 Moist cheeses set on edge, are apt to warp, and get 

 out of form. Cheese left to acquire age for market, 

 require constant attention and turning for their due 

 preservation. Our best British cheese is not in per- 

 fection until at least twelve months old, when its coat 

 will have acquired the favourable blue tinge. Large 

 cheeses, in some dairies, are smeared with fresh but- 

 ter, twice or thrice a week, during several weeks, 

 and kept moderately warm, no partial currents of 

 air being admitted into the room, which may cause 

 the cheese to crack. When cheese from imperfect 

 making, becomes hoven, a remedy is attempted by 

 pricking with skewers, or by rubbing a composition, 

 known by the name of cheese powder, upon the 

 cheese, at the second and third pressing. This powder 

 is composed of armenian bole and nitre, and from 

 the disagreeable flavour imparted by it, the remedy 



