68 
Composition of Cheese. 
cheese-rooms ; with the latter it is almost impossible to maintain 
an equable temperature. The cheeses nearest to the stove again 
are apt to get too much, and those farthest off not enough, heat. 
Constant attention is moreover required ; and firing in the room 
is always productive of more or less dust and dirt. These in- 
conveniences are entirely avoided by the system of heating by 
hot-water pipes. 
In every dairy hot water is in constant request ; the same 
boiler which heats the water for cleaning the dairy-utensils may 
be conveniently connected with iron-pipes that pass in and 
round the cheese-room. Beyond the first cost of the iron-pipes 
hardly any extra expense in fuel is thus incurred. An extra pipe 
likewise may be introduced which connects the boiler with 
Coquet's apparatus, and by this means the curd in the tub may 
be scalded much more conveniently and regularly than by pour- 
ing hot whey or water over it. I have not made a sufficient 
number of observations to say definitely which is the best tem- 
perature to be maintained in a cheese-room ; but in my judgment 
a uniform temperature of 70° to 75° is highly favourable to the 
ripening process. 
The proper regulation of the temperature of the cheese-room, 
and the general plan of heating by hot water, I believe, is one of 
greatest of our recent improvements. 
These are some of the practical mistakes which I have noticed 
in our dairies. I have endeavoured to' assign reasons why they 
must be so regarded, and have ventured to point out the appro- 
priate remedies, many of which, however, suggest themselves 
naturally to any intelligent observer. My object has been, not 
so much to write a treatise on cheese-making, as to enable those 
interested in dairy operations to read the various treatises and 
pamphlets on cheese-making with profit, so as to be able to sift 
the recommendations which are worth imitating from the heap 
of empirical rubbish under which they are too often buried. No 
directions, however carefully given, can ever be of much service 
in an art which, like cheese-making, does not so much presup- 
pose a great amount of knowledge as practical experience, dex- 
terity, and cleanly habits. Neither skill in manipulation, nor 
habits of cleanliness, nor experience can be acquired by reading. 
A good or a sensible pamphlet, no doubt, may be read with 
benefit even by an experienced hand ; but the very best of 
treatises, in the nature of things, cannot teach a person who 
wants a rule or a recipe for everything how to make good cheese. 
A good cookery-book, no doubt, is a useful lit&rary production, 
but the best cookery-book is incapable of teaching an inexperi- 
enced person the art of making light and wholesome pie-crust. 
