48 
Composition of Cheese. 
It is, indeed, surprisintr how small a qu<antity of ferment taints 
a large (juantitj of milk. The most scrupulous cleanliness 
therefore is broujjht into constant play bj a good dairywoman, 
who never minds any amount of trouble in scalding and scrub- 
bing her vessels, and takes pride, as soon as possible after her 
cheeses are safely lodged in the presses, in having the dairy look 
as clean and tidy as the most fastidious can wish. It is a plea- 
sure to see one of these hardworking women at work, especially 
as such a sight is not often witnessed, slovenly dairymaids being 
unfortunately in a majority. This being the case, we should 
encourage the use of tin pails and tin or brass cheese-tubs. 
Wooden pails. Sec, are very good in the hands of a tidy dairy- 
maid, but not otherwise. There is much less labour in tlioroughlv 
cleaning a tin or brass vessel than a wooden one, and boiling-hot 
water is not then required. Wood being a porous material 
inevitably absorbs more or less of the milk ; tin or brass does not. 
The milk tlms absorbed cannot be removed by simple washing. 
Inasmuch as all ferments are destroyed by water at the tempera- 
ture of 212°, it is important to ascertain that the water is per- 
fectly boiling ; and yet it is strange that few women compara- 
tively speaking, though they may have spent many years in the 
kitchen, know to a certainty when the kettle is really boiling. 
This remark applies to some educated as well as uneducated 
females. They often mistake the singing noise of the tea-kettle 
accompanied by a certain amount of vapour for a sign that water 
is in a state of ebullition ; so that if you would drink good tea 
you must be careful to whom you trust to make it. 
In some dairies of Cheshire it is customary to paint the wooden 
cheese-tubs in the interior. I confess I do not like this at all ; lead- 
paint is not a very desirable thing to be used in connection with 
cheese ; and I am glad to find that the best dairy-farmers are 
decidedly adverse to this proceeding. 
Milk sometimes gets tainted by the close proximity of pigstyes 
or waterclosets, or by underground 4i'ains. Not very long ago I 
visited a dairy in Wiltshire, where every possible care was taken by 
the dairymaid to produce good cheese ; but I noticed a peculiarly 
disagreeable smell in the dairy, and on making inquiries I found 
that there was a cesspool close at hand, which certainly tainted 
the milk, and rendered the making of good cheese an impossi- 
bility. In the third place, I would notice that if dairies are not 
well situated, — if they have, for instance, a south aspect, so that a 
proper low temperature in summer cannot be maintained, — the 
milk is apt to turn sour and to make sour cheese. It is im- 
portant, therefore, that dairies should be built with a northern 
aspect. 
These are some of the circumstances that spoil the cheese even 
