338 Report on the Farm-Prize Competition, 1871. 
When the men servants had breakfasted, they carried the 
whey tubs from the whey-room to the kitchen, and poured their 
contents into a cast-iron head, and so the whey passed to the 
pigs' food-house. Putting the contents of each tub at 112 lbs., 
a man on each side managed it, without much slopping, at ten 
journeys, the weight of the whey exceeding half a ton. 
The rennet and colour having been added as described, break- 
fast intervened, while coagulation was taking place up, to 7"20 
A.M. The help had hitherto acted as dairymaid, leaving Mrs. 
Walker free for domestic duties, and to scatter her bounty to a 
numerous and no doubt profitable progeny of poultry. 
After breakfast I noted the following course of operations : — 
The dairy-help commenced by lifting the presses and turn- 
ing 18 cheeses, rubbing each on the edges and sides with salt, 
and pricking or stabbing with a thick skewer each side of the 
3 cheeses from the previous day, and putting clean dry cloths on 
them all. Mrs. Walker, at 7-20 A.M., proceeded to break up the 
curd or custard, Avith an ordinary tin curd-breaker (save that 
the handle was placed at an angle of 45° to enable it to be 
worked under the beam over the cheese tub, which supports 
the screw and lever, by which pressure is put on the sinker), 
by passing the breaker up and down, slowly at first, to prevent 
any loss of curd in the whey. When finishing, the breaker was 
used more freely. A great improvement on these breakers is the 
American frame, with a series of sharp thin steel knives, which 
cuts the tender curd instead of bruising it. When No. 1 tub 
was finished, the sinker was slowly let down on the curd to settle 
it more rapidly than by its own specific gravity. The same 
process was repeated on No. 2 tub ; and at 8*10 A.M. the whey 
tubs, which had been carried out by the men to the vessel-shed, 
were brought cleaned by the housemaid. A hair sieve — with a 
contrivance for hooking it inside the whey-tubs — was then placed 
under the vents of No. 1 tub, and the upper plug withdrawn, 
until the tub was sufficiently filled, so that Mrs. Walker and the 
help could carry it into the whey-room and pour its contents 
into larger tubs on the stage, which required considerable 
strength. When the whey from No. 1 tub had been drawn 
down to the upper vent, a strong wooden frame was placed on 
the sinker, and slight pressure applied by the contrivance from 
above. This done, the same operation was repeated on No. 2 tub. 
At 8"25 A.M. the frames and sinker from No. 1 tub were re- 
moved, and the whey drawn from the lower plug, and then Mrs. 
Walker and the help, each with a large knife, standing on the 
wooden stage and leaning on their breasts over the edge of 
the tub, proceeded first to cut the curd into cubes, and then into 
slices of from a quarter to half an inch thick, in order to set the 
