CHEESE MAKING. 351 



ber of cheeses are pressed at one time. For a factor}^ for 

 500 or 800 cows, a seventy-gallon receiving can will be 

 required ; two gang j^resses, or twenty self-bandaging 

 hoops and five or six single presses. The whole appa- 

 ratus will cost about 180 for 20 cows, $100 for 30 cows, 

 1140 for 40 cows, $250 for 100 cows, $450 for 200 cows, 

 $600 for 300 cows, $700 for 400 cows, and $1,000 to 

 $1,200 for 600 cows and upwards. 



The process of making cheese in a factory is as follows: 

 The milk received at the factory in the evening is cooled 

 down to about sixty degrees, at which it is kept until 

 morning. The morning's delivery is added, and the whole 

 is thoroughly stirred and heated to eighty degrees. The 

 rennet is then added and well stirred through the milk, 

 sufficient being used to bring the curd in forty-five min- 

 utes to- one hour. When the curd has become solid 

 enough that a cube of it three or four inches square will 

 retain its shape when lifted, it is cut four times, twice 

 with each curd knife at intervals of a few minutes. The 

 curd is then gently moved to separate the whey, and the 

 vat is heated gradually to ninety-five or ninety-six degrees; 

 a little more or less is often preferred by different cheese 

 makei's or for special makes of cheese, this process being 

 used for what is known as the American cheese. The 

 Uieating is continued for an hour to an hour and a half; 

 tlie less period is used for a soft cheese and the longer 

 one for a harder and firmer one, as may be desired by the 

 maker. When the heating has been completed, the curd 

 is stirred for fifteen minutes to cause it to separate more 

 completely and to pack at the bottom of the vat, where 

 it remains until the whey is completely separated. 



Up to this poini4here is no important difference be- 

 tw^een the so-called Cheddar method and the ordinary 

 one known in England as the Cheshire process, except 

 that the Cheshire cheese is made of curd set at ninety 

 degrees and not heated afterwards, But here a diver- 



