1878.] 
53 
AMERICAN AGRIGULTUP. 1ST. 
The Cheese Factory. 
The tendency of modern improvements is to 
lighten labor and increase its effectiveness. By the 
introduction of various kinds of machinery, men 
engaged in agriculture 
are enabled to do in one 
day as much as could 
be done in a week with¬ 
out them. What the 
mower, reaper, and 
thrashing machine have 
done for farmers, the 
cheese factory has done 
for their wives and 
daughters. Years ago 
the work of the farmer’s 
wife was never done. 
The first to go to work 
in the early morning, 
she was the last to rest, 
late in the evening, and 
after taking her share 
in the milking and the 
care of the milk, the 
churning and cheese- 
making, with all the 
slopping, and washing 
of pans, pails, cans, 
tubs,churns,and cheese- 
presses, were added as 
additional duty to the 
already sufficient cares 
of the household. The 
invention of the factory 
system changed all this, 
and relieved the women 
of the farm, not only from the care of the milk, but 
in a great measure from the milking as well. In the 
farmers’ households there is now much more of com¬ 
fort, leisure, and culture, than there was before all 
the labor-saving improvements were adopted, and 
where these are made the most of, there is more 
profit than formerly. There is more money passing 
through the dairy farmer’s hands now than ever be¬ 
fore, and the location of a cheese factory in a dairy 
district is to be considered as a decided benefit. 
The market for cheese is only opened as yet, and 
before it can be fully occirpied, the number of 
cheese factories may be 
greatly multiplied. The 
home demand for this 
form of food has never 
been cultivated, the 
foreign market having 
received all the atten¬ 
tion. There has been 
no desire to consult 
differing tastes, and but 
one kind of cheese, and 
good, bad, and indiffer¬ 
ent of the kind, has 
been manufactured. An 
exacting purchaser of 
cheese might travel over 
a considerable portion 
of a large city, without 
finding any choice be¬ 
yond an ill-flavored, 
leathery product which 
goes by this name, un¬ 
less he found, by mere 
accident, some foreign 
cheese, or some of 
American make put up 
in the form of the for¬ 
eign article, and intend¬ 
ed to compete with it. 
It is a question whether 
the makers or the con¬ 
sumers are most to 
blame in this. But it is rarely that a good thing goes 
a begging for purchasers ; on the contrary, a supply 
of it at once creates a remunerative demand, and 
which rapidly enlarges as the commodity becomes 
known. If we had a plenty of cheese of different 
qualities and shapes, calculated to please the palates 
and the eyes of purchasers, there is no doubt that 
our home market would soon increase so largely, 
that many new factories would be required to 
supply the demand, and that the prices obtained 
for the best product would be very profitable. 
The process of making factory cheese differs in 
no respect from that of the old dairy methods, ex¬ 
cepting that much labor-saving machinery is used, 
and that the milk of 600 or 1,000 cows is made into 
cheese, with very little more cost for labor and uten¬ 
sils, than the milk of 20 or 30 cows would require 
in the old-fashioned home dairy. The product, if 
not equal to the best of the farm dairy cheese, is at 
least of even quality, and is better than the average 
of that formerly made in dairies. By the use of 
steam power, and an economical distribution of 
labor, the cost of making cheese is reduced to the 
lowest limit, and the return to the farmer for the 
Fig. 2.— CHEESE FACTORY.—THE CURING ROOM. 
milk, is greater than he could realize in any other 
way. An average of 2 cents per quart, or a gross 
sum of $40 to $50 for the season is the satisfactory 
and profitable income from each cow, when well 
managed; and this is paid in cash as the cheese 
may be marketed, without the loss of time that 
would be necessary in seeking a market. As the 
cheese factory is open but a portion of the season, 
this income therefore represents not much more 
than three-fourths of the product from each cow, 
and during the remainder of the time she adds to 
the amount of this income. As a rule, each dairy 
cow may be made, by 
the help of the factory, 
to yield the income 
stated in cash, besides 
furnishing some butter 
for family use or sale 
during the winter, when 
the factories are closed, 
if proper arrangements 
are made for this. With 
all their manifest ad¬ 
vantages, it is strange 
that there are not more 
factories in districts 
where cows could easily 
be kept, as well as that 
dairymen should be con¬ 
tented with cows of so 
poor an average quality 
as are common. The 
experience of the past 
year, however, during 
which market gardening 
has been a losing busi¬ 
ness, has turned the at¬ 
tention of many farmers 
to the keeping of cows 
and the production of 
milk,and it is reasonable 
to expect that several 
factories will be erected 
in the neighborhood of 
the large cities where various articles of food, 
richly productive of milk, can be cheaply procured. 
The cheese factory routine is very simple, and is 
reduced to a very thorough system in which every¬ 
thing is conducted by strict rule. The milk brought 
to the factory by the patrons is weighed in a large 
receiving can, (see fig. 1), and is then run through 
a strainer and a tin spout into the vats, where it is 
brought by steam heat to the proper temperature 
for adding the rennet. The different processes 
through which the milk passes before it finally ap¬ 
pears in the finished shape in the curing room, are 
referred to elsewhere. 
The last stage is by no 
means an unimportant 
one. The curing process 
needs to be managed 
with the greatest care. 
The curing house in 
which the cheese are 
kept to ripen, and await 
a purchaser, (shown in 
figure 2), is constructed 
so as to maintain an 
even temperature. The 
walls are double, and 
the space between them 
is filled with sawdust, 
or other non-conduct¬ 
ing material. Steam 
pipes for heating the 
room in cool weather 
are fitted around the 
walls in many factories, 
and ample ventilation 
is provided for. The 
windows of the curing 
room are shaded with 
blinds, or what is prefer¬ 
able, should be made 
only upon the north side 
of the building. This 
room is generally situ¬ 
ated above the “ make- 
room,” but in some factories a separate building is 
provided, where the stock of cheese can be kept 
free from all the effects of dampness, changes of 
temperature, or the partly vitiated atmosphere 
from below ; as the quality and value of the cheese 
depend upon the perfectness of the curing. 
