310 
SOUTHEEN CULTIVATOR 
weeks time — the disposition to swarm will again be 
manifest ; then pull up the slides on the other side and the 
bees will go to work there ; as soon as they appear well 
under way in side box No. 2, insert under side box No, 1 
the muzzle of a pair of bellows, blow gently and the bees 
will leave it, passing through into the centre box; then 
put down your slides and take away side box No. 1 and 
you will have 25 lbs. of virgin honey without the loss of a 
bee. As soon as emptied replace it, and when No. 2 is 
full let the bees into No 1 again, and so on. By this plan 
are gained what I regard as great advantages : 
1st, All swarming is prevented, 
2nd. No bees are ever destroyed when the honey is 
taken. 
3rd. The centre box, never being disturbed, contains 
enough for the winter subsistence of the hive. 
4th. All brood and discolored comb will be found in the 
centre box — the side boxes will always contain honey as 
pure as virgin honey, though the hive may be many years 
old. 
The common box gum is objectionable, because to ob- 
tain the honey the bees must be destroyed, and because 
the greater portion of the honey when obtained is discolor- 
ed by the bee bread — brood comb — and by the heat to 
which tlie hive is subjected in order to produce the young 
brood. F. T. 
We publish the following, in response to the 
wishes of our Texas subscriber (“C.”) in August number 
page 234 : 
THE MANUFACTURE OF CHEESE. 
Milk from healthy cows always contains the same 
substances, but the proportion of these substances varies 
considerably, according to the age of the cow, breed and 
distance from calving. The kind and quantity of food, 
and the general treatment of the cow also influence the 
composition of milk to greater degree than is generally 
supposed. It is difficult, therefore, to state, even approxi- 
mately, what is the average composition of milk. We 
have been at the trouble, however, of collecting such 
analysis of milk as have been made by reliable chemists, 
and obtain the following figures as the mean of eighteen 
separate determinations. According to these analyses, 
10, 000 pounds of milk contain : 
Water 
Casein or curd.... 
391 “ 
Butter 
....398 “ 
Sugar 
476 “ 
Salts 
Casein, or pure curd, is almost identical in composition 
with the white of egg ; with the albumen of grass, roots, 
hay, &c,; with the legumin of peas and beans ; with the 
gluten of wheat &c.; and with all the so-called protein 
compounds of oil cake, bran, linseed, corn, barley, oats 
and all substances used as food. These foods also contain 
oil or butter, as well as starch or sugar, and salts ; so that 
we find in milk precisely the same substances as in grass, 
hay, roots, grain, &c. 
Milk when drawn from the cow is always alkaline; it 
contains free soda. Casein or curd is insoluble in pure 
water, but readily soluble in water containing free soda. 
It is the soda of milk, therefore, that keeps the curd in so- 
lution. The oil or butter is contained in little bags or 
films of casein, and is not disolved but simply suspended 
in the water. The sugar and saline matter are of, course, 
held in .‘-olution. 
Such is milk when drawn from the cow. By allowing 
st to cool and remain quiet for a short time, the little bags 
of butter, being specifically lighter than the other portion of 
the milk, rise to the surface and are known as cream. 
Other changes soon take place. The milk coagulates and 
at a warm temperature soon becomes perceptibly sour. 
The cause of this very simple. At a proper temperature, 
by the absorption of oxygen from the atmospnere, the 
casein undergoes a slight transformation, and re-acts on 
the sugar of the milk, converting it into lactic (milk) acid. 
This acid immediately unites with the soda which holds 
the curd in solution, neutralizing it, and forming lactate 
of soda, while the casein, being insoluble in water, is pre- 
cipitated ; or, in common parlance, the milk becomes 
cudled. The conditions favorable for fermentation — heat, 
light and moisture — are, therefore, unfavorable for preserv- 
ing milk sweet. 
Milk can be instantly curdled by the addition of an acid 
and in some countries, spirits of salts (hydrochloric acid) 
and vinegar (acetic acid) are used instead of rennet for 
“setting the cheese.” In these cases the soda which holds 
the casein in solution is neutralized by the acids, and the 
curd immediately becomes insoluble, and is separated 
from the whey as in ordinary cheese making. Cheese so 
made, however, is hard and unpalatable. 
The only way to makegood cheese is to produce lactic 
acid from the sugar of milk by fermenation. A great 
variety of means are employed for this purpose. As we 
have said, the casein in milk will of itself change the 
sugar into lactic acid and curdle the milk; but before it 
does this it has itself begun to ferment, under the influ- 
ence of light and heat, and by the absorption of oxygen 
from the air. If curd be exposed to the atmosphere for a 
few days, and then added to milk, it coagulates as quick- 
ly as rennet, and is often used for this purpose. A num- 
ber of vegetable substances, such as the juice of the flag or 
thistle, a decoction of the dried flowers of the artichoke or 
thistle are also used as rennet. All animal substances in 
certain state of decomposition will convert the sugar of 
milk into lactic acid, but, although pig’s bladder is still 
used in some countries in Europe, it is conceded that the 
stomach of the calf, properly prepared, is the best sub- 
stance for this purpose. 
RENNET AND ITS PREPARATION. 
When fresh, the membrane of the calf’s stomach is in- 
soluble in water, but when it is salted and kept for several 
months exposed to the air, a portion ofitssurfabe is de- 
composed, and becomes soluble. It is this soluble decom- 
posed, or more properly decomposing membrane, which 
is the active principle in rennet. It is a soluble, highly 
nitrogenous substance, having its elements in a disturbed 
state, and therefore, highly effective in inducing change 
in the elements of other bodies with which it is brought in 
contact. 
In preparing rennet, we have to check the natural de- 
composition of the stomach by the use of salt — otherwise 
it would communicate an unpleasant flavor to the cheese 
— but at the same time keep the salted stomach long 
enough to permit its elements to become disturbed by the 
action of the atmosphere. In the celebrated Cheshire 
cheese districts of England, the skins are cleaned out and 
packed away with salt in an earthen jar till the following 
years. They are taken out a month before use, stretched 
on piile sticks and dried. A square inch of the skin for 
each 15 or 20 gallons of milk is saked for 24 hours in a 
solution oflukewarm water and salt, and the whole pour- 
ed into the milk and well stirred. In Gloucestershire the 
cleaned stomach is salted and pickled and dried ; and 
when at least a year old, it is well sodden in salt Vv^ater; 
half a pint of which is sufficient to coagulate 50 gallons 
of milk. In Ayrshire the contents of the stomach are pre- 
served ; the stomach is well salted, both inside and out, 
and dried for a year or more ; and when needed for use, the 
whole is chopped up and placed with salt in a jar, along 
with water and new whey, which, after two or three days, 
is strained to remove impurities, and is then ready for use.. 
