SUPPLEMENT. 679 



serving was intrusted to empirics; and that to judge, a priori it was sufficient to glance 

 at tho wretched dairies surrounded with dirt and permeated with odors. Molise produces 

 27,000 pound* of oli< i . r, and Ti-rra d'OItranto 35,000 pounds, or one-third more 



than in 1870. 



Among the Southern Mediterranean provinces Catanzaro is famous for its butter; 

 Casertafor a peculiar cheese called "tno&eareite," and Potenza for excellent sheep's-milk 

 cheese. The Casertese make 22,000 poundsyearly, and 26, 000 pounds are made in Beti- 

 <,vento. The cows of the Modica district of Sicily are large milkers, and the pasturage is 

 so rich that their milk contains fine butter and cheese-making properties. The cheese pro- 

 duced is equal to that of Parma, Lodi, England, or Holland. Cows stabled give from 20 

 to 22, and many from 30 to 38 quarts daily. They do not give milk in winter or at 

 other times when the food is scarce. Sicilian sheep give 1 and goats 2 quarts per day. 



In Sardinia two kinds ot cheese are made, viz: that of cows' and that of sheep's milk. 

 Of the latter kind about one-third, or 300,000 pounds, is exported. The Sardinians also 

 produce a large quantity of butter. 



Modes of making. In making Piedmontese cheese the milk is used when tepid. It is 

 mixed and shaken in whey, which curdles it in one-quarter of an hour. 



The curd is shaken for drainage, and when dry pressed in a form. Sometimes this 

 cheese is made of partly skimmed milk. 



Stracchino, of Gorgonzola, is made of milk containing the buttery parts. When the 

 mountain pasturage is exhausted the Berganese herdsmen drive, for wintering, their 

 herds to the plains. Gorgonzola is their favorite halting spot, for there they first find 

 the luxuriant vegetation of the Lombardian plateau. These herds reveling on the rich 

 grasses of Gorgonzola are, from the middle of September to the end of October, very lac- 

 tiferous. 



Cheese is made during these months in small rooms devoted to it in the homes of the 

 Gorgonzolese, who buy the milk of the herdsmen. The autumn temperature, b^'ng 

 moderate, is best for cheese making, as too much heat, by hastening the separation of 

 the whey, makes it too dry and friable, while excessive cold produces a wheyey a:. id, 

 and easily- spoiled cheese. 



The milk while warm from the cow is curdled with well-preserved and prepared calf 

 rennet. The quality of the cheese depends much npon that of the rennet ; and experi- 

 ence guides as to the quantity required. In fifteen or twenty minutes, when the milk is 

 coagulated and the whey separated, the cnrd is hung in hemp-cloth bags to drain. As 

 cows are milked twice daily the foregoing is twice done, viz : mornings and eveni; 



The morning-drained curd, inclosed in light, flexible, wooden bands, covered on their 

 inside surface with hemp cloth, is placed on an inclined board strewn with rye chaff. 

 Being of two milkings the curd is partly warm, partly cold, and, though mixed, care is 

 taken to form the upper and lower strata of the warm, because it is eementitious. As 

 hot and cold curd never perfectly unite, minute interstices remain in the cheese, in 

 which, while maturing, green mold, known as "parsley," forms and gives the straahino 

 the delicious taste for which it is famous. 



The curd is further drained during the first day of the process by two or three turn- 

 ings. On the following morning, when of some consistency, the cloth being removed , its 

 value is determined by weighing. After three or four days fermentation begins, and the 

 wooden bands are removed. It is then, once daily for eight or ten days, alternately salted 

 on its upper and lower side, 4 ounces of pulverized salt being, on an average, used per 

 form, or 33 pounds. The Gorgonzolese adopted some years ago the process of quickly 

 turning and pressing the cheese against a salt-covered surface, thus insuring more uni- 

 formity and a better crust. 



The color changes in a month to pinkish- white, if good; to black, if bad. When 

 black the crust is soil and the cheese perishable in summer. If the crust is sufficiently 

 hard the shade is improved by one or two dippings in salt water. 



The time of maturity depends upon the temperature (which is best from 10 to 15 

 Centigrade), manner of making, and quality of the milk. The Gorgonzolese straccJiino 

 begins to ripen in April, and continues till September. One hundred quarts of milk 

 make about 25 pounds of this cheese. 



ficUunese cheese is made by heating the milk, pouring in rennet, letting it coagulate, 

 breaking it into medium-sized pieces, reheating it, putting it in wooden tubs, salting and 

 placing it on stands for daily turning, and resalting until consumed. 



The following process makes a kind of Frinlani cheese known as "fieno:" Milk 

 heated until tepid in caldrons is mixed with rennet and left to curdle. The curd is broken 

 in vessels into small pieces, and violently shaken over the fire. When thus crumbled, 

 the caldron being set oil a stand, il , 1, thrown into the "talcio" or forming- 



tub, placed on tables for drainage, dried, and finally immerged in brine. 



Other Frinlani cheese is made with milk tepified in heaters and thence poured into 

 vats for coagulation. Tb e curd formed is wet. broken into large lumps, remoist- 



