274 On Cheese-making in Home Dairies and in Factories. 
needed for a dairy of 40 cows, but it would be equal to the 
work of a dairy twice as large. Of course the farmer's wife 
here, in the case of small and even of large dairies, takes a large 
portion of the direction and of the labour herself ; but estimat- 
ing it, by whomsoever done, at its proper wage value, the cost 
in the smaller dairies must be nearly 21. per cow, or at least 10s. 
per cwt. And to this agrees the experience of Mr. Smith, of 
Nupdown Farm, who has introduced the system into the Vale of 
Berkeley. He estimates his cost, for a dairymaid and girl at 80/. 
per annum for a dairy of 44 cows on a farm of 153 acres. He 
makes only about 8 lbs. of whey-butter weekly, and showed me 
a remarkably fine floor of cheeses — 24 of which, weighing 22| 
cwt., he had just sold. 
In addition to Mr. Harding's dairy at Marksbury, I also saw 
the process as carried out at Tunley, near Bath, by Mr. Gibbons, 
a son-in-law of Mr. Harding, whose daughter, Mrs. Gibbons, 
had, among other distinctions, won the gold medal of the French 
Exhibition in 1865, for the excellence of her cheese manufactured 
on this system. The Cheddar cheese is made of various sizes, 
from 70 to 120 lbs., the object being to make all the milk of 
one day on a farm of 30 or 40 cows into a single cheese. 
(2.) The Cheshire System, which varies somewhat in dif- 
ferent dairies, I saw in operation on the farms of Mr. Joseph 
Aston, of Brassey Green, near Tarporley, Mr. Robert Ankers, of 
Huxley, and Mr. Joseph Siddorns, of Broxton. Cheese is made 
only once a day. The evening's milk is placed not more than 
6 or 7 inches deep in tin vessels, to cool during the night, on the 
floor of the dairy ; it is skimmed in the morning, and a certain 
portion is kept for butter — in early summer only enough perhaps 
for the use of the house, but in autumn more, and in some dairies 
at length nearly all is thus taken for churning. The skimmed 
cream, with a portion of milk, is heated up to 130° of Fahr. by 
floating the tins which hold it on the boiler : quantity enough 
being taken to raise the whole of evening's and morning's milk 
together to 90°, or thereabouts. The rennet used had been made 
the day before ; 8 or 9 square inches of veil, standingMn a pint 
of salt water, kept in a warm place, making rennet enough for 
100 gallons of milk. Mr. Siddorns, who had taken accurate 
weights and measures, found that five pieces of veil, each weigh- 
ing GO grains, standing in 12 ounces of water during the day in 
a temperature of 70°, yielded the proper quantity for 50 gallons 
of milk. The Irish veil is used, being from very young and 
wholly milk-fed calves. 
The curd is set in about 50 minutes ; it is then cut with the 
usual curd-breaker, a sieve-shaped cutter, very slowly. The 
