l^he Practice of Stilton Cheese Making. 489 
should be so contrived as to have regulated draughts. It is a 
great advantage if the floor is about two feet below the surface 
of the ground, as the air of this room requires to be somewhat 
moist. The temperature should range from 50° to 60° ; if the 
cheeses are wanted to ripen quicker it may be raised to 65°, or 
even a little higher ; but it will be well to bear in mind that a 
quickly ripened cheese will not keep so well when cut as one 
that has ripened more naturally. 
All the buildings should have a northern aspect, and must 
be protected from the full force of the summer sun ; no shade is 
so good as that of trees. 
In the foregoing directions as to buildings it has not been 
the intention to give a design for a Stilton cheese-making factory, 
but for such structures as are required for a dairy of about 
twenty cows, and as a rule attached to the house of an ordinary 
farmer or grazier. 
Utensils. — The utensils required are, in the dairy or setting- 
room, milk coolers, a setting-pan, strainering, draining-trough, 
and moulds or hoops, and, if the quantity of curd is large, say, 
80 cows — a curd-breaker. The setting-pan is either single or 
double skinned : if double, the space between the skins can be 
filled with hot or cold water as needed ; if single, it is best made 
of tinned steel. The single is preferable ; it is much handier to 
clean and to move about. Strainering is the ordinary butter- 
strainering cut into squares of about 48 inches, and can be ob- 
tained of almost any linendraper. The draining-trough is best 
made of wood lined with sheet-lead, sides rather sloping. It 
must be fitted with tap to let off the whey, and also a movable 
pei'forated tin bottom, raised half an inch to allow the whey to 
run away freely — size 6 inches deep, 22 inches wide at bottom, and 
28 inches wide at top, with a length according to number of cows. 
The hoops are circular, made of tin, 13 inches high, 8;^ inches dia- 
meter, sides perforated to admit of skewering ; if well filled they 
will make a cheese when ripe of 15 lbs. weight. 
Draining-1-oom. — The drainer is of wood, 1|- inch thick, 4 feet 
3 inches high, 5 feet long, 1 1 inches from front to back ; the front 
open, the back closed, with top, middle, and bottom shelves — the 
bottom shelf 1 foot from the floor, the remaining space equally 
divided. Each shelf must have a groove cut all round half an 
inch from the edge to drain ofi" the whey, and a hole through the 
centre of the front groove through which to pass a string to con- 
duct the whey into a vessel placed under the bottom shelf. A 
deal table is required to place the cheeses on during the time the 
drainer is being brushed, washed, and clean cloths put on the 
shelves. 
