Construction and Heating of Dairy arid Cheese Booms. 307 
the thickness of the cheese made. The stands or racks on 
Avhich the shelves are made to rest shoukl be fixed in sockets on 
the floor, at the distance of 8 inches from the skirting of the wall, 
and the tops fastened to the joists of the ceiling. 
Heating the Eoo^is. 
It was formerly held that the introduction of heat to the dairy 
and cheese-room would be a very unreasonable and injurious 
practice, but experience has taught us that the sun's rays and a 
share of his heat are the best things we can have for drying and 
purifying both rooms, and when these become insufficient, as they 
do towards the winter months of the year, we must resort to arti- 
ficial means to supply their place and maintain the desired tempe- 
rature. Heat is not onlv the agent by which the whey is effectually 
separated from the curd in the process of cheese-making in the 
dairy, but without heat the cheese will not properly ripen in the 
cheese-room. As it is not usual to heat the dairy, large quan- 
tities of cheese are produced in the later months of the year, from 
which the whey has not been extracted in the process of 
making ; the curd and whey consequently become amalgamated, 
ultimately forming a "pulpy" cheese which can never ripen 
though submitted to any degree of temperature : such cheese often 
proves a source of loss to the factor, and fails to give satisfaction 
to the consumer. The maintenance of a temperature of from 
54° to 64°, during the late cheese-making season in the dairy, would 
very much tend to remedy the evil of " late made cheese." 
The cheese-room must of necessity be heated. A Cheddar 
cheese, when removed from the press to the cheese-room, at three 
days old, contains a certain amount of moisture, but in a well 
made cheese this will readily evaporate in a proper temperature, 
and the cheese will ripen accordingly. If the temperature be 
low or damp, or both, the process of evaporation and ripening 
will be slow, and the moisture lodging in and about the rind of 
the cheese will cause it to be thick and white, and will damage the 
flavour. From observation we find that 20 cwt. of newly-made 
cheese will give out nearly two pounds of moisture per twenty- 
four hours ; it follows that the sooner the room is cleared of such 
moisture the better. When the temperature descends below 50°, 
evaporation should be promoted by the addition of artificial heat, 
so as to expel all damp and noxious vapours from the neighbour- 
hood of the cheese, thus facilitating its ripening and leaving it 
as clean and rich looking as though it had arrived at maturity in 
the summer months. 
Various methods have been employed for heating the cheese- 
room — steam, hot'air, but chiefly the stove — but all are now being 
