FOREIGN DAIRYING. 1ST 



added to 30 quarts of cream, while in winter the cream is 

 heated, the temperature heing usually kept at from 57 to 

 67 F., the Italians permitting a pretty wide margin. 

 When in the churn the cream is beaten by two men alter- 

 nately with a butter beater attached to a frame, this being 

 raised and lowered by leverage. The butter forms in about 

 40 to 45 minutes, water being added if formation is desired 

 quickly, and ice if it is necessary to retard it. The butter 

 is worked by hand, formed in large lumps, and left to 

 drain. In some parts of Italy it is customary to keep 

 butter in bladders, a method which is considered very con- 

 venient, and which enables it to be kept for a length of 

 time. 



Cheese factories abound in Italy, and numbers have been 

 started since the year 1873-74, when the Government 

 offered large prizes and gold medals to the best-managed 

 associations. In Sicily, strange to say, small dairymen, 

 instead of daily manipulating their own milk, take it to the 

 large cow-keepers, until they have delivered some 300 

 quarts. They then receive that quantity back at one time 

 and deal with it in the manufacture of butter or cheese, this 

 system of reciprocity being found mutually beneficial. The 

 Italian cheeses known in England are the Parmesan and 

 the Gorgonzola, the last-named of which the writer has 

 visited Lombardy to see in course of manufacture. 



Gorgonzola. In making this cheese the milk is coagu- 

 lated while warm from the cow, great attention being paid 

 to the preparation of the rennet, and the quantity re- 

 quired being only ascertained by experience. The curd is 

 set in from 15 to 20 minutes. The whey is then separated 

 as much as possible, and the curd hung up to drain in coarse 



