On Cheese-making in Home Dairies and in Factories. 291 
to refuse, any milk that is of an inferior quality, skimmed, sour, dirty, or 
otherwise impure ; nor shall any person keep back that portion of the milk 
known as ' al'terings ' or ' strippings.' 
" 3. Milk from a newly-calved cow shall not be sent to the dairy until the 
cow has been calved four days. 
" 4. Milk will be received at the dairy from half-past five to half-past seven 
o'clock in the morning, and from five to seven in the evening. 
*' 5. The cans used for carrying milk to the dairy, and other utensils con- 
nected therewith, raiist be kept thoroughly sweet and clean. 
" 6. A correct account of all milk received at the dairy, with the number 
and weight of cheese made therefrom, shall be kept by the manager at the 
dairy ; which account shall be open at all times to the inspection of any milk 
contributor." 
The mode of dealing with the milk in the large vats of the 
factory can be varied to suit the practice of any county. The 
ordinary Derbyshire cheese is made at the Holms and other fac- 
tories in Derbyshire. The Cheddar system is adopted at Mickle- 
over, which is in the hands of Mr. Henry Harding, a son of Mr. 
and Mrs. Harding, of Marksbury, who finds that the longer heat- 
ing, the minuter subdivision of the curd, and the prolonged ex- 
posure of the curd after being ground in the curd-mill, which are 
characteristics of that method, are as perfectly well adapted to the 
scale of operations of a factory as they are to the scale of a smaller 
dairy. Mr. Livesey and Mr. Etches, who inspected the several 
Derbyshire factories last summer, in order to award the prizes 
olffered by Mr. J. G. Crompton for good management and its 
results, gave the first prize to Mickleover, notwithstanding that 
it Avas not so well equipped as some of the other factories. Mr. 
Harding's cheese has made the highest prices of the season, the 
later makes having fetched as high a price as 90*. per 120 lbs. 
Mr. Harding is especially anxious on the subject of the rennet 
he employs. Old Irish veils are preferred, and they are soaked 
in brine — about six veils to every 2 gallons — one lemon sliced, 
and an ounce of nitre being added to it ; and of rennet thus 
made one-third of a pint is enough for 100 gallons of milk at 
1 80° of temperature. 
The following is Mr. Harding's account of the process carried 
out under his direction at Mickleover, so far, especially, as the 
-character of the rennet is concerned : — 
"The process of cheese-making followed at this factory is the same as has 
been described at Mr. Harding's, of Somersetshire, in all its details; but having 
a larger quantity of milk to deal with, we use the ' agitator,' which, as I be- 
heve, by jireventing the cream from rising, frees the milk from any obnoxious 
gases, which would otherwise be sealed down by the layer of the cream, and 
thus prejudicially affect the milk. In illustration of this, I may mention that 
the ' agitator- wheel,' being out of repair, I could not work it during two 
nights ; the cream rose, and on being stirred in the morning a peculiar odour 
was clearly perceptible, the curd retaining it throughout the day, and it was » 
easily detected in the flavour of the cheese at ten weeks old. Good rennet ia 
U 2 
