Report on the Farm-Prize Competition, 1871. 
331 
" whey pumps " or separators, and with a tin tube from the 
pump to the whey-pan. This operation occupies forty-five 
minutes, until tlic pumping ceases, and the curd is removed to 
the drainer, when both tubs are trundled out to the vessel-shed 
to be scoured and scalded, and put to sweeten ready for the next 
morning. It is but simple justice to say that not a spot is left 
on the door of the dairy. 
The drainer is an oblong trough or vat on wheels, patented by 
Mr. Comes, of Barbridge, Cheshire, and took a prize at Oxford 
last year. In this trough the curd is cut up with the hand, on 
the old plan, instead of with the curd-mill, turned, pressed, and 
ultimately separated into small particles, to allow the whey to 
drain freely from it. The curd, when sufficiently dry, is put into 
the vats. Salt is mixed with the curd to the taste of the dair} - 
maid ; but with a view to ascertain the proportion of salt to curd, 
both were weighed on the last day of our inspection, and the result 
was 1 lb. of salt to 35 lbs. of curd, when dry for vatting. On 
that day, this was done by 11 o'clock, and the cheese put away to 
go into the whey-furnace when the furnace was sufficiently cooled. 
During the time taken up as described in breaking the 
curd and vatting the cheese, the temperature of the whey in the 
furnace or whey-pan rises by about 10'30 A.M. to 175 degrees, 
■when the cream begins to rise to the surface in fine curds, called 
fleetings, which are removed carefully with a skimmer. When 
a pot and a half, say about twelve gallons, has been thus 
obtained for churning, and the heat has risen to 180 degrees, 
a coarser kind is taken, technically called " men's fleetings," 
because they serve the men-servants or labourers for breakfast, 
and are very nutritious. The heat having steadily risen to 1S5 
degrees, a still coarser kind is taken, and this, while hot, is mixed 
.with Indian meal and oilcake for rearing calves, which do exceed- 
ingly well upon it. 
As soon as the fleetings have all been taken, a tap is turned, 
that connects the furnace b}^ a pipe with a cistern in the pig's 
food-house, into which the whey passes, and becomes food for 
pigs, on which, with Indian meal, they grow and fatten well. 
The cheese is either so well managed, or the pastures are 
so favourable to the cheese drying under press, that but one 
lever and four stone presses are used, only six cheeses are under 
press, i.e. three days' make down-stairs, two being made per 
day. Thus the turning under press is a light affair (compared 
with the ordinary case of ten to fifteen cheeses under press), and 
occupies only about thirty minutes. The two cheeses that are 
taken from under press have their edges nicely pared, and the 
sides smoothed with a hot iron ; and this process on both cheeses 
occupies Mrs. Clay over one hour, and is very nicely done. 
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