QOG 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[July, 
For the American Agriculturist. 
Experience in Cheese Making. 
Diogenes says of Mrs. Homespun, that she 
knows of no way to make a cheese, save from 
pure new milk, ancl certainly “where igno¬ 
rance is bliss ’twere folly to he wise.” We made 
over a tun of cheese last year, and made it all 
from new milk, for economy’s sake. 
When I first commenced making cheese some 
year’s since, I used to skim the night’s milk for 
family butter, and thought I was a very saving 
woman; now I stir the cream into the cheese vat 
every morning, having first heated it up in a 
kettle by itself. And now I propose to give four 
reasons why it pays better to do so. 
1st.—The cream will give me more pounds of 
cheese than butter. 2nd.—The cheese will taste 
better. 3d.—In seasoning, the cheese will hold 
its weight better. And last and not least, it 
brings from one to two cents a pound higher in 
market. The greater part of our cheese sold for 
10 cents per pound last year, which was the same 
price as for butter, except in the Fall, when the 
latter sold for a shilling a pound. Roe’s Patent 
cheese vat is a great saving of labor. AYe had 
it last year for the first time, and now we would 
not be without it. The newspapers say they 
want no “ puffy ” cheese in the New-York mark¬ 
et, and as far as my experience has gone, it is 
want of salt that makes cheese puffy, while too 
much salt makes the cheese hard or “ white oak.” 
We use the ground dairy salt, a large teacup¬ 
ful to twenty pounds of cheese, but if the curd 
be soft, it will take more, owing to the whey that 
will run out and carry part of the salt with it. 
AYe press cheeses 48 hours in a self-pressing 
apparatus, cover them all over with cloth, and in 
the time of flies put a little Cayenne pepper in 
the whey butter oil -with which we rub them. 
The flies are the great bugbear that prevent 
Illinois women from making cheese. They are 
much more prolific here than in the East, but 
if the last two items I have mentioned, are at¬ 
tended to, and the cheese turned, oiled and rub¬ 
bed every day for a month, and every second 
day afterward, there will be no trouble. Last 
year we made enough oil from the cheese whey 
for kitchen lamp use, besides cheese curing. 
AVhen drawn off from the vat, let it stand twen¬ 
ty four hours in the whey tub, skim it as you do 
cream, and churn twice a week. The butter is 
put in an iron pot and boiled down, taking care 
that it does not scorch. When sufficiently 
cooked, a thick scum will have formed on the 
top, which must be skimmed off, and the oil 
poured into a stone jar for future use. 
Carroll Co., 111. M. J. STEPIIENSON. 
--- 
Improvement in Cheese Making. 
We find the following extract in the Dairy 
Farmer, without any indication of its origin, 
and do not therefore endorse it, but give it as 
suggestive of experiments which may be 
valuable. - Recent investigations prove that a 
large portion, in some cases as high as one third, 
of the cheese is wasted in the process of manu¬ 
facture; and any method which promises to save 
this waste, is worthy of attention. The writer 
says: 
“ In June, 1859, I finished a few cheeses after 
the following manner: When my curd was 
scalded, (I practice thorough scalding,) I threw 
into the vat about four quarts of salt—sometimes 
oniy three for a cheese of 50 to 00 pounds, stir¬ 
ring thoroughly. Those which went into the 
hooi before being well cooled off, acted badly; 
but when I took time and means to cool suffi¬ 
ciently, the cheeses were fine. On the whole, 
I did not like the process and abandoned it. 
In I860, I commenced again, changing the 
programme as follows: After scalding, I drew 
off the whey, leaving just enough to float the 
curd, and began to cool off, hurrying the process 
by pumping in cold water and changing often. 
Then, to a curd of say 60 pounds, a little more 
or less, I threw in sometimes three and some¬ 
times four quarts of salt, and stirred till well 
cooled—then drew off the salted whey, and threw 
it on the compost heap—put the curd to press, 
and pressed rapidly and thoroughly. And now 
for the result. I lost from my whey tub about 
three pails of whey and some salt. I gained in 
this, that my dripping tub under the press never 
had a particle of cream rise upon it, and in hav¬ 
ing a cheese that gave me no trouble in curing, 
and which, when sent to market, sold for the very 
highest price, and called forth the unqualified 
approbation of dealers, as being perfect in all re¬ 
spects—fine flavored, veiy solid, (not porous,) 
and very fat. 
And now let me talk to the experience of 
dairymen. In the old fashioned way of breaking 
up and salting a curd, more or less bruising of 
the curd to break the lumps, in order to get the 
salt evenly distributed, is necessary, and when 
put to press, the white whey runs off freely—in 
other words the cream runs off, and of course 
with it the richness of the cheese, and more or less 
of its weight, and if the curd is very dry, you 
are liable to get your cheese too high salted, and, 
if not, the reverse. 
My experiments clearly prove that a curd 
salted in whey, will retain no more salt than it 
needs, and that as every particle comes in con¬ 
tact with the brine through the operation of 
stirring, no bruising is necessary. AYliether this 
is the philosophy of it or not, I am not chemist 
enough to determine, but I do know that if 
there is no discharge of white whey, or cream, 
it is retained in the cheese, adding to it both 
richness and weight as a remuneration for the 
extra salt and the waste.” 
Advantages of Broad Tires for Carts. 
These are made from four to six inches in 
breadth, and, usually, of somewhat thinner tire, 
to save weight. The wheels have to be a little 
heavier to accommodate the tire. The advan¬ 
tages over the common narrow tire are several. 
Used upon the highway, thoy tend to fill up the 
ruts made by smaller vehicles, and help keep 
the road track in good repair. So highly is this 
advantage esteemed by some turnpike com¬ 
panies, that they exempt all broad tired carts 
from toll. If they were generally used, they 
would act upon the road bed very much as a 
heavy roller, keeping it solid, and preventing 
washing, to some extent. 
The broad tire also diminishes the resistance 
made by the road bed or soil over which the 
wheels pass. Upon a perfectly solid bed, like a 
plate of iron, or iron rails, this resistance is en¬ 
tirely removed, or, at least, brought to its mini¬ 
mum. But upon a common road, it seriously 
interferes with their progress. The wheels sink 
into the dirt, more or less, according to tlje 
weight of the load and the hardness of the 
road. Upon meadow lands, the resistance is 
still further increased by the softness of the soil. 
The broader the surface of the wheel, the less it 
will sink into the soil, and the more easily the 
load can be drawn. It is not necessary to state 
the precise ratio in which this resistance is di¬ 
minished, to make it apparent. Other things 
being equal, a team will draw a heavier load 
with a broad tired cart, than with a narrow one. 
If this advantage amounted to only a hundred 
pounds to a load, it would soon pay for the ex¬ 
tra cost of the tire. 
It also saves the cutting up of meadows 
More or less carting is necessary over fields in 
grass, at seasons oi the year when ruts will be 
made with the narrow tire. This not only mars 
the beauty of the field, but diminishes the yield. 
The roots of the grasses are tom and destroyed 
and the track of the wheel is generally barren. 
AYith the broad tire, little if any damage is done. 
It also enables the farmer to use the cart on soft 
or swampy lands that would be impassable with 
narrow tire. It may be true that these wet lands 
ought to be drained, but they are not, and will 
not be for some years. AYhile waiting for ti’_s, 
the broad tired cart is needed. 
Connectw JT. 
Lime as a Manure—Soil Analysis. 
Among the numerous responses to our lime 
questions, we have received a very good address 
delivered before the F-rmers’ Club of Chester 
Co., Pa., by Geo. A. X Call. The views of Mr. 
M. are in the main correct and useful. He, how¬ 
ever, makes a chemical error in stating that the 
peroxide of iron is hurtful to vegetation, and 
that lime withdraws a portion of its oxygen, 
producing the protoxide, which is “ perfectly 
harmless to vegetation.” The contrary is the 
case; the salts of the protoxide are soluble, and 
when absorbed by plants, are poisonous; but the 
peroxide is insoluble, and not injurious. Nor 
will lime ‘educe the perox le to a protoxide. 
Lime, as ho states, is an oxic? of calcium ; but 
only one equivalent of oxygen unites with one of 
calcium, and that it already has in the form of 
lime. AYe also differ from Mr. M. as to the value 
of having a soil analyzed, “ at little expense 
and trouble.” An analysis of a soil costing less 
than $30 to $50 is of little value; indeed, after 
much practical study of the subject, we doubt 
the utility of any soil analysis as a guide to 
farmers in the application of special manures. 
As an aid to scientific investigation, analyses of 
soils, manures, and plants, are valuable. 
-— « - —«•!— --- ■ 
Improvement of Pasture Lands. 
The first inquiry a skillful physician makes of 
his patient, is: “ AVliat are your symptoms ?” 
Then, the peculiarities of constitution are noted, 
and the treatment decided upon. A quack cares 
little for symptoms. His panacea covers every 
case. “ Buy my pills,” is his one prescription. 
Those who have but one course to recommend 
for treatment of iailing pastures, resemble the 
quack doctor. One man insists that plowing is 
the cure-all. He argues that the grasses “ run 
out” for want of seed, and he directs to culti¬ 
vate with hoed crops a year or two, followed by 
AYinter grain; then re-seed, and all will be right 
again. But let him visit some sections where 
natural pastures abound, fields which have 
yielded luxuriant grass crops for scores of years 
without the harsh surgery of the plow, and he 
will find his theory “run out” much sooner 
than the grasses. Another authority urges the 
water cure. “ Turn on the adjacent stream,” 
he says, “ flood the land repeatedly through the 
season, and grass will grow while water runs.” 
All very well, doubtless, in some places, on well 
drained ground, but productive only of coarse 
rank growth of undesirable sorts on other soils 
