Dairy and Stock Farms. 
509 
The dairy was in full operation, under the management of 
Mrs. Lea and her daughters. Arriving at six in the morning, 
and remaining till noon, we saw the whole process, as it is 
carried on in a Cheshire dairy. All hands were milking, one 
to every seven or eight cows. The cream off the evening's 
milk and the warm morning's milk were poured together through 
the sieve into the evening's milk, which, after being skimmed, 
had been poured into the tub, and they were stirred up together. 
The rennet, made yesterday, a quart of water in which two pieces 
of dried veil, cut about the size of the palm, had been soaking 
for 24 hours, was poured into the milk at about 83° of Fahrenheit, 
and the curd (covered up if it be a cool morning) comes in 
about an hour. The tub, about 9 feet long, 30 inches wide, and 
26 inches deep, holding 300 gallons, when conveniently full, is 
provided with a waste-pipe at one end, and was about two-thirds 
full. The curd was slowly cut with a square cutter, in which 
the meshes are three-quarters of an inch square. This — the 
cutter being lifted and dipped always in a new place until the 
whole is thus cut — takes about twenty minutes ; and after being 
left for an hour, the whey is baled and drained out, an upright 
sieve, protecting the exit, being first fixed in its place. As soon 
as possible, the curd, cut in larger pieces as it gets firm together, 
is lifted and put on a cloth over a latticed false bottom, placed 
beneath it in the tub, enabling the more perfect drainage of 
the whey from it. It is here again cut up, and then salted as 
ground, panful after panful, and packed in the cheese vats, tin 
ekes being used which hold it considerably higher than the wood- 
work. The salt was supplied at discretion during the grinding, 
but it was found that 4 lbs. had been used in nearly three 
cteeses of barely 70 lbs. each. The whey, draining off to its 
cistern close by, yields about f of a pound of butter weekly 
from each cow. It is drawn off as required for the pigs, being 
used for them along with scalded Indian meal. 
The work of the dairy is constant for every day in the week, 
excepting only what postponement of cleaning operations may 
le possible on the Sunday ; the principal part of" the work is, 
lowever, concluded by noon. The cheeses are not subjected 
1o any heating in the so-called oven, which is a common practice 
in Cheshire dairies, nor is there any scalding of the curd in the 
:ub during the manufacture. After three days in the press — 
during which (skewered at intervals through holes in eke and 
vat, left to facilitate the drainage of the whey) it is taken out and 
turned daily — it is ironed, bandaged, taken to the cheese loft, and 
there turned daily, until ready, in about six weeks, for sale. 
We did not think Mr. Lea's cheese to be of the first quality, as 
regards texture or taste ; but in this matter no doubt the demands 
