1909.] Cheese-making for Small Holders. 



91 



As with all methods of dairying, it is essential that the 

 milk intended for cheese-making should be perfectly clean 

 and in good condition. It is of no use attempting to make 

 good cheeses with dirty or carelessly handled milk, or milk 

 kept under insanitary conditions. Good flavour in cheese 

 ensures a ready market at remunerative prices; poor flavour 

 condemns it, and no one wishes to buy it at any price. 



Milk produced in almost any district will make good 

 cheeses, provided always that the food given to the cows is 

 sound and in good condition, and that the supply of water for 

 drinking and cleansing purposes is pure. 



Buildings and Utensils. — Almost any clean, airy, and 

 well sheltered building having a good floor is suitable for 

 cheese-making purposes, and if a cellar is available in which 

 to ripen the pressed cheeses, so much the better. If a dairy 

 has to be built, it should be of brick, with a cement floor 

 falling to a channel, which leads to a suitable gulley placed 

 outside the dairy and communicating with a proper drain. 

 If pressed and ripened cheeses are to be made, then a similar 

 building, to be used as a curing room, should be erected in 

 line with the dairy, but sunk about 2 ft. in the ground, with 

 a floor of "cement, and well ventilated. The ripening-room 

 need not be drained. A series of shelves should be put 

 round the ripening-room on which to place the cheeses, and 

 the walls of both rooms should be limewashed at least twice 

 each year. When not required for cheese, the making- 

 room would do duty as a butter dairy. A suitable size for 

 the making -room is 10 ft. by 8 ft., and for the ripening-room, 

 8 ft. by 8 ft. The roof may be of tiles, thatch, or of galvan- 

 ised sheeting lined underneath with boards. Perfect and 

 ample ventilation in each room is necessary, and all venti- 

 lators and windows should be made to open and close at will, 

 so that the rooms can be kept at a suitable temperature. In 

 order to save expense both rooms may be made of wood placed 

 on three or four courses of brick to prevent rotting. If built 

 of wood, the outside walls would need to be double, with an 

 air space between. The making-room should usually be kept 

 at a temperature of 62 0 F. to 66° F., and the curing-room from 

 58° F.to 62°F. 



The utensils necessary are a table 6 ft. long by 2J ft. wide, 



H 2 



