118 
Cheshire Cheese. 
of time for keeping cheese in the " drving-house " varies from 
seven to twenty davs ; and is regulated by the temperature of the 
weather, or the cheese-room to which it has to be next removed. 
In hot weather, and especiallv if the cheese-room is exposed to 
the heat of the noon-day sun, the change from a too cold drying- 
house (as many often are, except perhaps in the middle of sum- 
mer) to a too hot cheese-ronm, is calculated to cause cracks in the 
cheese, which said cracks have from time to time to be filled up 
by the application of bacon-fat, or whev-butter, otherwise mites 
would soon be generated, and the appearance of the cheese de- 
tracted from. To prevent this cracking as much as possible, the 
salting and drying houses have rarely if ever the windows opened, 
and drafts or currents of air are therebv prevented. This pre- 
caution is also adopted in the cheese-room ; and, in addition, the 
light is excluded either by a shutter or blind, as I have before 
stated. 
The cheese I have before alluded to as having been made with- 
out any external salting, as an experiment, and which teas taken 
direct from the cheese-press to the cheese-room, was made in the be- 
ginning of June, and at the end of September was ready for the 
market. The quality of the cheese was better than that made in 
the ordinary wav, and all the labour of the saltin? and drying: 
house was saved. Mv own impression is, as I have already 
hinted, that the drving-rooms are often too cold ; and that if it is 
found to be desirable, as perhaps it mav be in some dairies, to 
continue the use of such drj ing-rooms, the heat should be kept as 
near as possible at from 50" to 55". In concluding my remarks 
on this room, I must not omit to observe that it is necessary the 
cheeses should remain bandaged, in order to prevent their bulijing, 
and also that they should be turned over once a day. If one 
cheese be made daily, one will consequently — in the course of a 
certain time after the season of cheese-making commences — have 
to be removed every day to the cheese-room. When taken to this 
room, the situation of which I have before described, it is usual 
to scrape and clean the coat of the cheese, and to place it, in the 
first instance, in the coolest part of the room, often for a^few 
w eeks upon shelves or benches, which are cooler than the floor, 
subsequently upon the coolest part of the floor, and ultimately 
upon the warmest part. It is usual to continue the bandage or 
" fillet " for several weeks after the cheese gets into this room, 
and indeed in some dairies until it is sold. It is also usual to 
turn the cheeses, and wipe them with a cloth daily, for at least 
three or four months, and every alternate day afterwards; and 
when there are any symptoms of cracking, bacon-fat, hogs'- 
lard, or some other fatty substance, is applied. The floor of the 
cheese-room is generally covered with dried rushes, or a coarse 
