80 THE DAIRY OF THE FARM. 



Gloucester Cheese -making. Under ordinary manage- 

 ment, the Gloucester cheese is made twice a day. The 

 morning's milk is heated or cooled to about 80 in one 

 or more large vessels of from 80 to 100 gallons : a pint 

 and a half or {hereabouts of rennet is added to every 

 100 gallons : in an hour's time or so, when the curd has 

 set, the curd-breaker, a wire sieve, fixed on the end of a 

 pole, is slowly and repeatedly drawn hither and thither 

 through the mass, the whey is baled out, the curd is 

 pressed by the hand, crumbled fine, and placed in a cloth 

 and in the cheese vat under a press for 12 hours ; it is 

 then salted and turned, and again put under the press. 

 It is kept there as long as there is press-room for it, and 

 afterwards transferred to the dairy shelves, where it is 

 turned at intervals, and where it gradually ripens. The 

 whey baled out of the curd-tub stands and throws up a 

 cream, from which an inferior butter is made. The less the 

 quantity of cream that rises, the more of course is the 

 butter left in the cheese ; and the more gentle the manage- 

 ment of the curd and the removal of the whey, the less is 

 the quantity of this cream that rises on it. 



Keevil's patent curd machine, now largely used in 

 the county, consists of a cylindrical tin vessel, which is 

 used as a cheese-tub, with a drainer up the side from top 

 to bottom, through which the whey escapes, and with a 

 revolving frame of vertical and horizontal wires, by which 

 the curd is systematically broken. 



It needs, after the curd has set, that a few cuts through 

 it with a knife be made, else this revolving framework of 

 wires will carry the whole mass of curd with it, which will 

 thus escape without being cut ; after this, the revolving 

 wire cutter is pushed round with extreme slowness ; and 



