8G 
Recent Imi^rovcmcnts in Dairy Practice. 
rul)becl over it by the hand every morning. I have known, in a 
<lairy of 50 cows, 52 cheeses to be thus turned twice a-day, giving 
a vast amount of unnecessary labour to tlie dairy-woman and 
expense for cloths to the farmer. This state of things exists to 
this day in some of our largest cheeseniaking districts. 
The machinery and utensils, too, were of a rude description. 
The presses were either a large stone raised by a screw", or a box 
filled with some heavy material and suspended between two 
upright posts and lowered or raised by ropes and pulleys. I 
should have thought it almost incredible that there should exist 
a cheeseniaking district in England that had not partaken of the 
universal improvement in the cheese-press, had I not learnt a 
lesson the other day. A friend of mine was travelling in a 
railway carriage in Lancashire in which some farmers were dis- 
cussing the merits of an improved cheese-press lately introduced 
into their district, when one of them, convinced of its supe- 
riority, said, " I do not think I shall lay out much money in a 
stone-press again." 
The utensils were generally made of wood, and the whey, 
however large the quantity, had to be ladled out of the tub with a 
heavy wooden bowl. The curd, when put into the vat, was 
broken into small pieces by the hand, so laborious a work 
that I have seen dairy-AVomen whose finger-joints were gi'own 
large and stiff in consequence. After the cheeses were intro- 
<luced to the cheese-room, they had to be washed and scraped 
before they became marketable, which was not generally the 
case until they were from four to six months old, although they 
were what we should now term tliin cheese. In many instances 
the cheese was kept until the following spring. The process of 
manufacture was unsystematic and irregular, without regard to 
an even or proper temperature ; consequently the cheese was of 
unequal quality — some good, some bad — from causes unknown 
to tlie dairy-women. This was the state of things when improve- 
ment in the machinery and utensils began to be studied. It is 
just, however, to state that, with regard to the cheese-tub, a few 
wealthy and enterprising men thought it desirable to substitute 
copper in lieu of wood many years before this general movement 
took place. These tubs wei'e made rough and at a gi-eat expense, 
many of them costing from AOL to GOL apiece, according to the 
number of cows kept. 
About thirty years ago the first improved cheese-press was 
exhibited in VVel Is market, in this county, and, though extremely 
simple, proved to be a step in the right direction. I think that 
prizes have been awarded to it in its incomplete shape more 
than once by the Royal and other Agricultural Societies. The 
principle of its construction was that of the lever in its simplest 
form. The subject was immediately taken up by the mechanics 
