No. 150 . 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
QOl 
SHORT-LORN CATTLE —Bred and Owned by C. M. Clay, Whitehall, Madison Co., Ky. 
Pixy 2d, (American Herd Book, Vol. 3, p. C01) -Fordkam (Royal ?) Duke of Whitehall. No. 3389 (American Herd Book, Vol 4, p. 203.) 
Written for the American Agriculturist.—Prize Articles. 
The Dairy — VII. 
THE MANUFACTURE OF CHEESE. 
We say manufacture, instead of “ making,” 
because the various manipulations to which milk 
is subjected, before it assumes the shape and 
consistency of a sound healthy cheese, are sever¬ 
al and various, and the skill, and knowledge ap¬ 
pertaining to them approach nearer a scientific 
profession or pursuit, than would be supposed 
from the simple manual labor connected with the 
operation. 
There is, probably, no one article produced on 
the farm of such various quality as cheese—even 
upon soils and localities alike in all that ap¬ 
pertains to the material of which it is com- 
posed. The difference is only in the manufac¬ 
ture. We have already said that some soils and 
grasses and localities will not produce cheese of 
the best quality at all. Wc have said all that is 
necessary on that score, and are now to speak 
of its production on suitable lands in suitable lo¬ 
calities, with the proper grasses, in a good dairy 
country. 
The qualities of a good cheese are various, ac¬ 
cording to the taste and education of the con¬ 
sumer. One is dry and hard. Another is dry and 
crumbling. One is soft, moist, and easily falls to 
pieces in cutting. Another is soft, tenacious and 
elastic. One is porous, almost like a honey-comb. 
Another is less so, like well risen bread. Still 
another is compact and unctious. One is strong, 
and high flavored, piquant in taste, leaving its 
flavor on the palate almost for hours. Another 
is mild, savory and creamy, leaving a rich aroma, 
and every way delicious. Each one of these quali¬ 
ties belongs to first class cheeses, more or less 
given them by the constituents of the milk from 
which they are made, and their modes of manu¬ 
facture ; some cheeses of quite opposite quali¬ 
ties are made on the same farm, while others 
are the more natural product of different soils and 
situations, equally good—but with a different way 
of making, and possessing an altogether different 
character. The cheeses of the granite hills and 
valleys of New-England differ from those of the 
secondary soils of Herkimer, Oneida, and northern 
New-York, while the latter differ from those pro¬ 
duced on the shales of the “ Southern tier,” and 
northern Pennsylvania; and they again are a 
different article from the cheeses made on the 
slaty clays of the Ohio “ Western Reserve ”— 
yet all excellent and each preferred by those 
most partial, for any reason, to their peculiar and 
different flavors. 
The very best, and the very worst cheeses are 
produced in each and all of these dairy regions, 
the difference between them being only in their 
mode of making ; and we propose to speak very 
plainly of the whole process of manufacture. In 
the first place, we contend that no cheese can be 
of the best quality uniformly unless it is made in 
considerable quantity—at least equal to one cheese 
daily, of thirty to fifty pounds weight; and if 
more, the better. Secondly : What is called a 
“ family ” cheese, made from three or four cows 
only, in the common household and multifarious 
labors of an ordinary farm family is rarely very 
good, for the reason that different “hands” 
often run up the curd and make the cheese, with¬ 
out proper system or attention. A woman usu¬ 
ally does the work, also, and she, troubled with 
common household cares, is unable to dabble over 
the inexorable demands of a cheese-tub—no dis¬ 
respect to the woman either. The writer has never 
tasted a first quality cheese taken promiscuously 
out of such a lot. It will thus be seen that the 
manufacture of cheese, different from that of 
butter, must be in considerable quantities of 
material. There ought not to be less than ten 
cows for a cheese' dairy, and fifty to a hundred, 
with proportionable appliances, are better. A 
man or woman, whose sole business it is for 
the dairy season, should superintend the whole 
operation, from receiving the milk from the 
cows, to placing the cheese on the shelf in the 
cheese-room. A man is better than a woman 
for a large dairy, for these reasons: Men 
are stronger, enabling them to do heavy lift¬ 
ing, which is oftentimes required. They are 
from education and habit of thought and investi¬ 
gation, better enabled to judge chemically and 
experimentally of the various conditions of the 
milk, curd, and other ingredients composing its 
parts; and, as it is a heavy labor, when on a 
large scale, it is too severe for any woman but 
those of gigantic stature and strength. In short, 
a woman can better do some other in-door work. 
We believe in the emancipation of woman from 
the drudgery of a heavy dairy. It is every way 
better suited to the capacity of a man, and a man 
only should do it. The “ wimmen folks ” can do 
the washing, scalding, and brightening up of the 
pails and tubs, and looking after the cleaning, and 
dusting departments requiring the use of broom 
and brush. 
A dairyman about to establish himself in cheese¬ 
making should, at the first, select the description 
and quality of the cheese he intends to make, 
and having established it he should make that, 
and no other so long as he finds a good market 
for it. It is difficult to make two or three differ¬ 
ent kinds of cheese in one dairy, and each good, 
or the best of their kind. Better adopt one only, 
and stick to that. Your cheese, if good, soon 
acquires a reputation, and will be sought after at 
the top price of the market, and you make a sure 
thing of it—like a favorite and old established 
brand of flour, “ Richmond City Mills ” forex- 
ample, or pure “ Genesee,” as in old times, be¬ 
fore it was adulterated, and “ scratched ” by 
mixing with it “bald face,” “stumptail,” “chess,” 
and “cockle,” from Chicago. Aside from our 
domestic cheese market, which is throughout the 
United States beyond the immediate dairy dis¬ 
tricts themselves, our foreign markets are va¬ 
rious. Not only in several countries of Europe 
on the Atlantic coast is our cheese sold consider- 
