82 THE DAIRY OF THE FARM. 



following may be taken as the ordinary history of a 

 Cheshire cheese : The cows are milked at night, and the 

 milk poured through a sieve into tin pans on the floor of 

 the milkhouse. This milk is skimmed in the morning, and 

 then poured into the large tub where the curd is " set." As 

 the morning's milking proceeds, the pailsful are brought one 

 after another and poured through the sieve into this tub. 

 A pan of milk, containing more or less, according to the 

 quantity whose temperature is to be raised sufficiently high 

 by the addition of it, is warmed by floating in a boiler in 

 the dairy ; and, when sufficiently hot, the whole of the cream 

 just taken is mixed with it, and the whole thus warmed is 

 poured at last into the tub, which thus contains the whole 

 milk, cream and all, of both " meals." The temperature 

 of the milk when well mixed should be about 75 Fahr. 

 The liquid colouring matter, " annatto," about half a gill, 

 dissolved in half a pint of warm water, is added to the 100 

 or 120 gallons which may be then in the tub as the produce of 

 40 cows a half-handful of saltpetre may be thrown in with 

 a view of correcting the bitterness which is to be detected 

 while the butter-cups are in full leaf ; and the rennet, about 

 a pint of brine, in which two or three little bits of the 

 prepared calves' veils have been steeped over night, is added 

 to the milk, which is then left for an hour covered up till 

 the curd has fully formed. It is then cut slowly with a 

 wire curd-breaker, and the curd sinking, the whey is baled 

 out ; the curd is collected and squeezed both by hand and 

 the direct pressure of a weight above a board placed upon 

 it, and the last of the whey being removed, it is lifted 

 either into a basket or into one of the large Cheshire 

 cheese vats (" thrusting tubs "), pierced with holes for the 

 further escape of fluid the lower part being a wooden 



