90 
Recent Improvements in Dairy Practice. 
curd-mill, after which salt is added and mixed with it in the 
proportion of 1 lb. to 5G ll)s. It is then put into the vat and 
press, where it remains three days, after which it is taken to the 
cheese-room. The cheeses are made from 9 to 14 inches in thick- 
ness, some even more. They are only turned twice in the press, 
and that is when the cloths are chang^ed. 
Tlie method of Jiccpincj the cheese in the cheese-room has also been 
improved. 
At one time we thought it desirable to keep them in a low 
and even damp temperature, but the cheese was then a long- 
time in getting ripe, and a fine mellow flavour was not readily 
obtained. We now introduce them at once from the press to 
the cheese-room, which is kept at a temperature of from 50° to 
70°, as the case may be ; and we find that the cheese ripens 
faster, acquires a richer flavour, and can be sold much sooner ; 
so that our thick cheeses are often cut over the counter at three 
months old, sometimes even less ; though a few years since the 
same sized cheese would have required eight or nine months to 
acquire the same degree of ripeness. 
This system of making has diminished the make of whey 
butter. Where we made one pound per cow, we now make 
one pound for every seven cows, and sometimes less ; the 
quantity is so reduced that we often do not think it worth the 
risk of imparting sourness to the cheese, but turn the whey off 
to the pig-tank. Some persons tell us that we lose a great deal 
of valuable food in our whey, as proved by the bacon fatted from 
it. When bacon is fatted from whey alone this must be the 
case ; but the whey from a cheese well and carefully made 
would not fatten a pig in six months. 
To the cheese consumers of London, who prefer an adulterated 
food to that which is pure, I have to announce an improvement 
in the annatto Avith which they compel the cheesemakers to colour 
the cheese. The improvement is not in the smell, which remains 
as unpleasant as ever ; neither is it in the taste — that is as filthy 
as ever ; but it consists in this — that we now get annatto in a liquid 
state, instead of a cake, which saves the trouble of rubbing out. 
I have now enumerated the principal improvements in dairy 
practice that have enabled us to send into the market a superior 
article, increased in quantity 25 per cent., at a reduction of the 
original labour of more than half. Although we have attained 
this result by studying, as far as our observation and experience 
go, the state of the curd through the various stages and ma- 
nipulations which it undergoes, and have acquired, so far, 
some knowledge of what we are doing, we have not yet arrived 
at perfection. Cheesemahing, as a science, is not understood. 
1 could ask a dozen questions, which suggest themselves at 
