1866.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
279 
Walks and Talks on the Farm— No. 33. 
We have been trying our hanil at Cheese Making. 
It has long been a fiivorite theory of mine that we 
cau make os good ehcese in the wheat region ag 
they do in the dairy districts. I think so still, but 
a few days' dabbling .at cheese making, withnoeon- 
Venlenees, may well deter any one from adopt- 
ing it as a business. — First we wanted a cheese 
hoop. I was sent to the city to get one, but 
found it no easy task. "Have you any Cheese 
Hoops," I asliedat the store where it wassaid they 
would most likely be found. ''Yes, Sir," and 
thereupon they h.anded me— a peck measure with 
the bottom knocked out! This was the nearcbt 
approach to a cheese hoop that could be found in 
Rochester. I went to a cooper who it was said 
made them. But it seems he got up half a dozen 
five years ago and could not dispose of them, and 
g.ave up the business in disgust. Ho had none and 
would not make me one. So I took the peck 
measure, and started for home with pleasing anti- 
cipations of eating some nice horae-m,ade ehcese 
next fall with a good old fashioned .apple pie, ra.ade 
In a deep dish with no crust at the bottom! 
Now for the cheese. Here is the milk, here is 
the rennet, and there is your hoop. But where is 
the cheese tub? The thrifty Scotch say, "keep a 
thing seven years and you will find a use for it." 
Some sbc years ago I got a Metropolitan Washing 
Machine, which has been in the lumber room 
ever since. It was voted to be just the thing 
for a cheese tub. So it was brought down, cleaned 
and scalded, the night's milk skimmed .and poured 
in, .and the morning's milk added. This made the 
temperature 74". The rennet was added, and in 
about an hour the cheese "came" — sweet and 
tender as could be desired. We were jubilant. 
Next the curd had to be cut, in order to allow the 
whey to separate. In the dairy districts they have 
a nice knife with sLk or eight long, narrow 
blades set half an inch or so apart, which, be- 
ing drawn slowly through the curd, accomplishes 
the object in a few minutes. In the English dairies 
they use a tin hoop, about eighteen inches in di- 
ameter, with wires stretched across, and a wooden 
h.andle in the center. This is pressed down very 
gently and cuts the curd into small pieces. But we 
were obliged to use a long carving knife and a tin 
skimmer, with a free use of that original imple- 
ment, the hand. We m.anaged to get the curd par- 
tially separated, and dipped otT carefully a portion 
of the whey; then cut the curd of one half the 
tub and placed it on the other half, and in this way 
got oflf more whey. Slowly the work progressed, 
but at last nearly all the whey drained off. 
It was then placed in a cloth and put under a 
small lever press and pressed gently for an hour. 
It was then taken out, broken up fine and salted. 
Now for the hoop. Tbe curd more tlian fills it ! 
What is to be done? A tin fillet is put round the 
cheese and inside the hoop. This is the English 
way. As the cheese is compressed, the tia fillet 
sinks down inside the hoop and the curd is pressed. 
So far so good. But thinking that our hand press 
was not powerful enough, and recollecting that Dr. 
Voelcker in his analyses of English and American 
cheese, found that one trouble with our cheese was 
that the " whey was not sufficiently extracted," we 
put the cheese under a cider press. This brought 
out the whey; but putting on a little more pres- 
sure, the so-called hoop, or peck measure, burst, 
and the fat was iu the fire ! 
Another peck measure was got, .and using less 
pressure the cheese was finally made. I have no 
doubt that the cheese will be good, but the shape 
is not quite orthodox. It is ten inches iu diameter 
and eight inches high, and weighs 273^ lbs. 
This is from one d.ay's milk of lOV^ cows. (We 
keep 11 cows, but one of them is a farrow.) And 
you must recollect that the night's milk wa.s skim- 
med. Last week, before we commenced to make 
cheese, we got 79}.^ lbs. of butter — actual weight, 
not guessed <at. This is a little over 11 lbs. a day. 
Now we get from a day's milk 27>^ lbs. of cheese, 
and probably four or five lbs. of butter besides 
from the night's milk — or say 193 lbs. of cheese and 
30 Ills, of butter per week. At the present relative 
price of butter and cheese it certainly mu-t be 
more profitable to make cheese th.an butter. But 
cheese making will not become general iu the 
wheat region, until we have a good cheese vat, 
proper hoops, presses, and good arrangements for 
doing the work expeditiously. Those who judge 
of the labor of ordinary clieesc making from a single 
trial with one or two cheeses, with no conveniences, 
will not be likely to go into the business. 
Determined to give tbe m.atter a further trial, 
and feeling dissatisfied with tlie peck measure, I 
went again to the city and succeeded in finding a 
good cheese hoop. But it was sixteen inches in 
diameter, and if we made a cheese every day they 
would be too thin. So we " set the curd " one day 
■and made it, together with the curd of the next 
day, into a cheese. We make the curd the first 
day precisely as if we were going to make a cheese, 
press it a little under a hand press and let it lie till 
the next day, when it is mixed carefully with the 
new curd, put in the Large hoop and pressed. This 
gives us a cheese 10 inches iu diameter and about 
S>^ inches high, weighing about 56 lbs. This is not 
a bad shape, and it is less labor than making a 
cheese every day, and besides, it gives you the use 
of the press for two days, which is undoubtedly 
better than pressing for only one day. 
Our cows gi\e fully one third more butter this 
year than last, due solely to good feeding and warm 
quarters in the winter. They were cows I bought 
with the farm. They looked well, but proved to be 
poor milkers. They had been sntfercd to go dry 
.about the 1st of November, under the impression 
that milking them in the winter would seriously 
injure them the coming summer. And I have no 
doubt that there is consider.able truth in this idea, 
provided the cows iu the winter have nothing but 
corn stalks and straw, .and are not stabled. But if 
they are fed liberally, they may be milked, not only 
without injur}-, but with positive advantage. It 
favors the habit of secreting milk. Till witbin six 
weeks or two months of calving, a good cow, with 
plenty of rich food, can give four or five quarts of 
milk per d.ay, and will still be able to secure milk 
enough for the calf. She will eat and .assimilate 
more food, and will get theh.abit of secreting more 
milk. I believe there is no better way of restoring 
the milking qualities of cows that have degenerated 
from jjoor man.agement. I gave my cows three 
quarts each of corn meal a d.ay, and an abundant 
supply of corn stalks and str.aw. Instead of letting 
them go dry in November, I kept them stabled in 
cold weather, and they gave more milk, or rather 
they made more butter, after we commenced to 
feed grain, in November and December, than they 
did in August and September. I milked some of 
them till within six weeks of c<alving. This is per- 
haps too much — ten weeks would be better. The 
cows, after we stopped milking, fleshed up rapidly, 
and many were the predictions that the corn meal 
would spoil them for milk. But it did not. They 
give more milk th.an ever before, and it is certainly 
very much richer. The prospects now are that for 
the year commencing the 1st of last November till 
the 1st of next November they will give as mueh 
again butter .as they ever gave in a year before. So 
much for good feeding in winter. We weigh every 
pound of butter m.ade, and I feel confident that 
this opinion will prove correct. I have not yet fed 
meal this summer, but shall do so the moment 
there is any indications of a falling off in butter. 
In fact I should feed meal now if I had my build- 
ings conveniently arranged for the purpose. I have 
not the slightest doubt that it would p.iy to give 
each cow two quarts of corn and pea meal a day. 
If twenty biishels of com a year will double, or 
even add one third to, the amount of butter and 
cheese made by a cow, it is easy to figure whether 
it is profitable or not. I do not say they will not 
eat as much grass and fodder as if they were not 
fed meal. The more food the^will eat the better, 
provided it is turned into butter and cheese. 
Mr. Judd of the AgricuUurM came home with me 
yesterday from the S. S. Convention at Rochester. 
He is a man of untiring energy, and like others of 
his temperament is i-.ither inclined to apply the spur 
to those of us who are of an easier disposition and 
move slower. "Why don't you pull out the wild 
mustard from the barley," he asked, as we ap- 
proached the field that I had underdrained and 
sowed so early. It is certainly the best crop of 
barley ever raised on this farm, but these few yel- 
low heads of charlock annoyed him as much as a 
blotch of ink would on one of the beautiful engrav- 
ings in the AijrknlturiM. " When he was a boy on 
the home farm, they went over large fields and pul- 
led up every dock and cut off every thistle in the 
growing grain, and in a few years scarcely a weed 
was to be found on the farm." I do not doubt it. But 
it is one thing for the farmer or his sons or with 
cheap help to do such work, and entirely another 
to pay $1.3.5 a day to do it. It is an argument in 
favor of small farms. The high price of labor meets 
us at every step, and moulds our agriculture. I 
h.ave over thirty acres of barley, and it would take 
some time to go over it and pull out every weed. 
This worlc must be done the ye.ar previous when 
the laud is in corn,. and if the land is not thoroughly 
cle.an, plant it to corn .again, and two crops of com 
in succession thoroughly cultivated will go far to 
destroy all the weeds. Then if any escape, it would 
doubtless be well to go over the field when ingrain 
the next season .and pull oat the few weeds that 
have escaped. But with muchother work pressing 
— with plautiUL', cultivating, hoeing, and a thous- 
and and one little matters to attend to, I plead 
for gentle criticism if a few things are neglected. 
One of my neighbors hearing that Mr. Judd was 
coming, wanted to see the editor of the Agrie^iX- 
turisl, and asked me to diivc him over. " Tell him," 
he said, " that I will show him the best seventy-five 
acre farm he ever saw." Is not that a happy dis- 
position? Many people are just as well satisfied 
with themselves .and their farms, hut are not so 
outspoken. He and the Doctor have gre.at times 
when they get together. We won't call it boasting, 
for what they say is strictly true. "I have got a 
hog that will dress seven hundred by next Christ- 
m.as," says the Doctor — and he has. He gives it 
corn meal and sour milk, and stii-n it with a red hot 
iron. Ho thinks this very important. He is raising 
a calf that he feeds in the same way, and it is really 
astonishing how fast it grows. In reality, however, 
it is not so astonishing after all, for plenty of good 
food, comfortable quarters, regular feeding, and 
daily petting, will m.ake, any well bred young animal 
grow. I like to see a man pet an animal. He can 
hardly fail to feed well, and in nine cases out of ten 
the heifer calves raised by such a man will prove to 
be good milkers. It is certainly a great mistake 
not to feed calves well. Push them forward for the 
first year as rapidly as possible. Let them come in 
at two years old. Feed high, and if well bred, you 
are almost sure of getting a " deep milker." 
A farmer cannot make a greater mistake than to 
starve or even stint a yonng animal. But it is very 
common. If I were buying young pigs I would 
give doiMe tbe price for a litter at two months old 
that had been well fed and gradually weaned than 
I would for a litter that had been neglected. As I 
told you last month, I bought two litters of young 
pigs. One litter was half Suffolk .and quarter 
Chester White, the other was " Native." Both lit- 
ters had received ordinary treatment — that is they 
were half starved ! I paid nearly as much again 
for the half-bred Suffolks as for the others, for the 
sake of the experiment. I fed both litters alike, 
giving them sour milk and a little corn meal. So 
far, the " Natives " are demUdhj ahead. My o^ftn 
half-bred Suffolks, that were fed with rich food 
from the day they were born. Peart, the butcher, 
pronounced "the best pigs he ever saw," and he 
offered me 13 cents per lb. for them dressed weight. 
Not wishing to dress them I offered to take S30 a 
piece for them, and he took me up ! I have not yet 
learned how much they dressed, but I have no 
doubt the whole litter will .average 250 lbs. dressed 
weight. They were not eight months old ! I think 
it would not be easy to make a litter of common 
pigs do as well. The reason that the half-bred Suf- 
