40 
Report 011 the System of Cheese-making 
the teeth, no perceptible acidity taking place in the whey. After 
standing for some time, varying from half an hour to an hour, 
the time being ruled very much by the season of the year and 
the temperature of the atmosphere, the curd is collected in the 
centre of the tub by a circular action of the breaker, and the 
whey drawn off by a syphon and conveyed down an open tin 
spout, which is easily cleaned, into cisterns and left for one day, 
the top skimmed off and made into butter, and the refuse pumped 
direct into the piggeries. The curd is cut into squares of 6 or 
8 inches, of an inch thick, and laid up to drain, being occasion- 
ally turned, and it is in this stage that the acidity is allowed to 
take place. There seems no means of testing the proper time 
to arrest the fermentation by adding the salt ; it would greatly 
assist cheese-makers if some simple test could be applied, instead 
of it resting entirely with the experience of the cheese-maker's 
taste and smell. The curd is ground through a curd-mill before 
being salted, at the rate of 1 lb. of salt to 56 lbs. of curd, and, 
after being well mixed, is spread thinly over a lead cooler. It has 
to be turned several times, pure air being allowed to pass over 
it ; when sufficiently cool, that is, at 60^ to 65°, it is pressed 
under iron lever-presses to expel all the whey. The third day it 
is taken into the curing-room to ripen for market, a man putting 
on the bandages and turning it daily. Mr. Gibbons has a con- 
trivance for turning a number of cheeses at once. There is a 
frame made of stout planks, with sufficient space for the cheese 
to go between, and a back hollowed to fit each cheese, to prevent 
its slipping through when turned over. The frame is fixed on 
two axles, and a windlass attached, which enables a man to 
turn 30 or 40 cheeses at once with comparative ease. The cheeses 
vary in weight from 40 lbs. to 112 lbs., and are covered with 
stout calico. 
The dairy on the First-Prize Farm in Class 4 is managed 
by Mrs. Long, who strongly believes in the maxim that you 
cannot get any one to serve you as well as you can serve your- 
self. Although this farm is in Wiltshire, the cheese is made on 
the Gloucester system, both thick and thin cheese, or Single and 
Double Gloucester, being made. The manufacture is much the 
same in both, except that the thick cheese is made richer. The 
cows are brought up for milking into yards, and the milk is 
carried direct to the dairy. The evening's milk is placed in a 
tub into a cooler to facilitate its keeping sweet, a current 
of air through the dairy assisting to cool it. The cream is 
taken off the evening's milk during the early part of the year 
and made into butter, which meets with a ready sale in the 
Chippenham Market and surrounding neighbourhood, the price 
of butter varying from li'. to is. a pound. Butter-making involves 
