THE DAIRY. 289 



If it has not been previously salted, which may have been 

 done either by salting the curd, or by rubbing the cheese 

 with salt each time it was taken out of the press, it is now 

 to be salted. To this end, it is to be rubbed with salt daily 

 for eight or ten days. It may likewise be washed once or 

 twice with hot water, and finally rubbed with butter, so as 

 to soften the external surface, and prevent its cracking. It 

 is then placed in the store-room, on a shelf, where it remains 

 until disposed of. It is for a time to be turned daily, and 

 the skin is to be kept clean and soft, by anointing and brush- 

 ing it. The cheese apartment should be moderately cool, 

 and be ventilated without admitting any current of wind. It 

 should be kept exceedingly clean, and the walls and other 

 parts should be frequently washed with a solution of chloride 

 of lime, so as to destroy effluvia, and prevent the multiplica- 

 tion of insects which deposit their eggs in the cheese. 



When cheese of peculiar richness is required, the prac- 

 tice is to add a further quantity of cream to the milk to be 

 curdled than that which itself produces : thus the cream of 

 one milking is added to the milk of the following one, which 

 is made into curd. By this mean the milk for each cheese 

 has not only its own cream, but that of the previous milking. 

 There is waste in this practice, but the higher price of the 

 cheese compensates the dairyman. In this manner are made 

 the rich cheeses of Stilton, Cottenham, and Southam, usually 

 termed cream-cheeses. The process is, after having milked 

 the cows in the morning, to skim off the cream of the pre- 

 vious evening, and mix it with the new milk. The runnet 

 being added, the coagulation is allowed to take place in the 

 usual manner, with this difference, that the temperature of 

 the milk is kept somewhat lower, and the coagulation more 

 slowly produced. To retain the cream, too, the whey is 

 more cautiously separated, and, in place of the strong pres- 

 sure of the cheese-press, the cheese is pressed with cloths 

 bound round it. In the preparation of the cheese called 

 Stilton, which is the most esteemed of this class, the curd, 



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