308 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
September 27, 1894. 
breaker aright requires skill only to be acquire! by practice. 
The condition of the curd is the guide as to speed ; if used rightly 
the whey is clear enough to reflect the worker’s face, if too fast 
the whey becomes white, if too slow the curd becomes so tough 
as not to be reduced easily to the proper size. 
4, Ripeninrj the Curd .—To do this heat is at once applied after 
the curd is reduced by the breaker to the size of peas. It is 
varied gradually till in about fifteen minutes curd and whey are 
at a temperature of from 98° to 100°, the lower range in 
summer, the higher in winter. The breaker is kept moving 
with the end pressing upon the bottom of the vat, the stirring 
being continued till the curd becomes so firm that after being 
squeezed in the hand it can easily be rubbed into separate 
particles. The curd is then drawn to one side or end of the 
vat, where it packs into a compact mass, for this half an hour is 
allowed, and then the whey is withdrawn. The curd is then cut 
into squares, piled quickly, and turned from bottom to top two 
or three times. From half an hour to an hour is required for 
the ripening. Test with litmus paper by inserting a piece in 
the pile. When it changes to a deep lake colour the curd is 
ripe. 
5, Salting .—The pile of curd is cut, the curd turned, dried 
gradually, and divided into pieces 2 or 3 inches thick, spread 
out, and when the surface is crisp and yellow it is turned, then 
when the crispness and yellowness is repeated it is ready for the 
salt ; this applied at the rate of 1 lb. for every 56 gallons of 
milk, scattering it over the curd and mixing it thoroughly. The 
curd is then ground in the curd mill, then put into the hoops, 
care being taken that it has cooled to a temperature of 60° in 
the summer or 65° in the winter. It is kept under pressure for 
two days, and is then ready for the cheese room. But as a high 
authority has said, “It is only curd yet, and the process of 
mellowing down into a ripe, clear flavoured, and luscious article 
of food fit for table has yet to come. Here may be stored 
perfect and well pressed curd, promising to become all that we 
could wish—a credit to the maker, the desire of the dealer, and 
a source of gastronomic pleasure to the consumer; and here it 
may by overheating acquire a sharp, strong, and unpleasant 
taste ; or by the temperature being kept too low may become 
soapy and characterless in flavour ; here, in fact, it may be 
spoilt by simple neglect.” The cheese room is, therefore, a 
place where there are no draughts, and where an even tempera¬ 
ture of 60° to 65° can be maintained, care being taken that no 
hot-water pipes are in contact with or very near the cheese, 
which will require from two to three months to ripen. A cheese 
dairy should consist of the making room, press room, curing or 
ripening room, and boiler shed, and if cheese making is 
attempted at the home farm, though it may be managed in con¬ 
nection with other dairy work, a making and cheese room would 
certainly be necessary. 
The process we have given is that followed for Cheddar 
cheese Though it has the characteristic of simplicity, it 
demands intelligence, watchfulness, and care to produce cheese 
of a uniformly high quality, in which is combined richness, 
digestibility, pleasant flavour, good keeping, and sound texture. 
Toughne s and poor flavour are common faults in home-made 
cheese. By regarding the making of the first few cheeses as 
purely experimental, by close attention to mistakes or failures, 
however trifling, so as to acquire a thorough grasp of details, 
the making of good cheese can be done with certainty, and we 
doubt not with profit. Facilities for students are increasing, 
and thoughtful young men are awakening to the folly of 
regarding dairying as women’s work. The wife of a farmer 
n the midlands — a first-class maker of Stilton cheese — 
recently expressed her delight that her son “had taken to 
the cheese making.” That he had done so was mainly owing 
to the influence of another farmer’s son who had been trained 
in a dairy school 
WOEK ON THE HOME FAKM. 
Highly favourable has the weather been for the sowing of autumn- 
crops, the first sown being Trifolium incarnatum, then came Eye,, 
winter Oats, Wheat, and winter Tares. We have been told of some 
slovenly practice with Kje which has been sown on poor land as a catch 
crop unworthy of particular care. Apart from the fact that every farm 
crop should be well done. Eye is worthy of our best caie, because it. 
affords us green food earlier in the year than any other crop. But bulk 
and earliness both depend on fertility of soil, and where anyone has 
been so foolish as to sow it on poor land we advise the sowing of 1 cwt. 
per acre of sulphate of ammonia at once, and a similar amount of 
nitrate of soda about the beginning of next March. With a thick 
plant of Rye there need not be any fear of loss from the use of a nitro¬ 
genous manure this autumn, and the growth will be so robust and early 
as to well repay one for the cost of the manure. If winter Oats are 
suffering at all from poverty of soil they should have a similar dressing. 
What Wheat has to be sown on the home farm should certainly be got in 
before the end of the month, so that the only sowing left for October ia 
a successional crop of Tares. 
See now that yards and all buildings used for live stock are in perfect 
order for winter. Frosts are already beginning in valleys, and cattle 
should have shelter in good time from cold and wet, one of the best safe¬ 
guards being a commodious open hovel out on pasture, with the floor 
kept clean and unbroken. Straw is plentiful enough, but where rough 
litter and bracken can be had there should be an ample supply in stacks 
in or near each yard. Drains and water pipes should be examined, 
roofs, ventilators, and windows also, and any faults set right at once. 
To have a full supply of eggs in winter laying hens must have snug 
quarters where there are no draughts, and where they can have access to 
dust and grit. We were recently show a poultry house with the floor 
raised a few feet from the ground, and we advised that the space under 
the floor should be enclosed with wooden sides, with plenty of glass for 
light on the south side, as it would then be a capital dusting place for 
the fowls during winter ; openings from it into a boarded enclosure on, 
the south front would afford them a run on fine days. Fowls are very 
susceptible to cold and wet, and never wander far on wet or stormy 
days. 
OUR LETTER BOX. 
Rough Pasture (IF. IF. TF.).—By “fields very full of rough 
grass, which bullocks and sheep will not eat,” we gather that your 
pasture is in the condition of very much other pasture everywhere just- 
now. The dripping summer has induced so free a growth of herbage, 
that the live stock has found enough without touching the rank growth 
which comes where animal excreta has fallen, and which is invariably 
left for other herbage, if it is to be had. We have seen much of this 
rank growth in patches on several dairy farms, which the tenants, 
will compel the store beasts and cows to clear up by keeping them out 
on it without other food. We do not approve of this process of 
“starving them down to it,” both because of its absolute cruelty and 
the serious loss of condition of the poor animals, to say nothing of the 
loss and risk to the farmer. Much better mow it, and convert it into 
savoury silage, which they would eat fast enough. Your idea of salting 
can easily be put to the test. Six bushels of sale per acre is often 
applied immediately after the hay is cleared. Try it; it can do nothing 
but good to the land, and the bullocks might be induced to eat herbage 
flavoured with salt, of which they are fond, but it is more doubtful 
about the sheep, as they do not like bents or coarse herbage. Possibly 
the pasture may be inferior. We shall have something to say about 
such pasture short y. 
MBTEOROLOaiCAL OBSERVATIONS. 
Oamdbn Squarb, London. 
Lat.51° 32'40" N.; Loa?. O'^S'O" W.: Altitude, 111 feet 
Date. 
9 A.M. 
In the Day. 
d 
'3 
1894. 
September. 
Barometer 
I at32‘",and 
1 Sea Level. 
Hygrometer. 
Direc¬ 
tion of 
Wind. 
Temp, 
of soil 
at 
1 foot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
Sun. 
On 
Grass. 
Inchs, 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
Inchs. 
Sunday ., 
16 
30-345 
56-3 
54-2 
N.E. 
56-0 
62-4 
52-1 
75-9 
43-0 
— 
Monday .. 
17 
30-316 
57-2 
53-3 
N. 
56-0 
61-7 
52-3 
73-6 
48-4 
— 
Tuesday .. 
18 
30-181 
671 
55-6 
N.E. 
56 1 
6S-9 
54-0 
105-3 
52-3 
— 
W ednesday 
19 
30-104 
53-9 
53-2 
N.E. 
56 2 
67-7 
49-9 
83-2 
43-6 
— 
Thursday.. 
20 
30-126 
56-6 
55-4 
E. 
56-2 
63-2 
53-2 
73 7 
45'4 
— 
Friday 
21 
30-0 8 
55-8 
54-9 
E. 
56 7 
58-6 
53-0 
66-3 
52-4 
0-1- t 
Saturday .. 
22 
29-901 
53-3 
52-0 
E. 
56-1 
58-9 
47-1 
68-6 
45 7 
0-219 
30-140 
55-7 
54-1 
53-2 
63-1 
51-7 
79-1 
48-0 
0-320 
REMARKS. 
16th.—Sliglit showers early ; overcast day. 
I7th.—Overcast all day. 
18th.—Dull early; cloudy morning: bright sunshine in afternoon. 
19th.—Dull and misty early ; occasional sunshine in morning ; sunny afternoon. 
20th.—Overca^.t and dull all day. 
21st.—Dull early; frequent showers of fine rain after 11 A.il., and dull end damp 
between. 
22nd.—Gleam? of sun early; overcast from 9 A.M., and frequent drizzle from 10 A.M. 
A week with small rainfall, but very little sunshine. Temperature much the same; 
as that of the preceding week, and near the average.—G. J. SYMONS. 
