/?(JLTURE>H 
EXCELSIOR 
NEW YORK CITY AND ROCHESTER N. Y 
41 Pork Row, New Yorli 
H2 Uutl'alo St., Rochester. 
FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, AUGUST U, I860 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, in the your 1S69, by n. D. T. Moore, 
" L ‘ Cl0,k ’ 3 ° mce of the Dlstrlct Coart of the United States for the Southern District of Now York.'] 
THE ITsTOKUSOI.r, CHKKSD 
(ONTA I l IO,) (,'A.NA1)A 
that date the Smith cheese was the largest 
-!. Its size attracted 
uni) fjuslwnbr}) 
particularly adapted to localities where 
small dairies are scattered over a considerable 
range of country, and where the distance 
would be too great to deliver milk at a cen¬ 
tral factory. Small buildings are therefore 
located at convenient points among the 
dairies as manufactories, where the milk is 
made up and the cheeses, as fast as they are 
pressed, are hauled to a central establish¬ 
ment, where extensive buildings are erected 
for curing and taking care of the aggregate 
product of the manufactories. As the cheese 
can be carried to the central buildings at 
much less expense than the milk, and as it 
costs less to take care of the cheese at one 
point than to divide it up into several parcels 
scattered over the country, the branch sys¬ 
tem is not only a convenience but a matter 
of economy. 
The engraving gives a very fair repre¬ 
sentation of the central department, where 
the branch system of cheese making is in 
operation 
and at some of the factories the supply of 
water is furnished by pumping from wells. 
Ingersoll has a pleasant site, being upon 
rising ground and in the midst of a line agri¬ 
cultural section. It is the principal cheese 
mart of the county, as well as the shipping 
station for lumber manufacture in the south¬ 
ern part of the county. It has a population 
ot about 4,000. The Ingersoll factory is on 
the borders of the village, handsomely loca¬ 
ted, and presents a very neat and tasteful 
appearance. 
that bad ever been made, 
a great deal of attention, but the cheese it¬ 
self was of bad flavor, and had evidently 
been imperfectly made and not properly 
cured. 
The Ingersoll cheese was made in 18GG, 
and thirty-five tons of milk were used in its 
manufacture. Its diameter measured six 
feet ten inches, nearly two feet more than 
the Smith cheese, while its height was two 
feet ten inches. The weight of this enormous 
specimen of the dairy was seven thousand 
pounds. 
The manufacture of so large a cheese as 
this, and the putting together of such a mass 
of curds to undergo the curing process with¬ 
out decay or serious damage to flavor, is not 
without difficulties; and Air. Harris, the pro¬ 
prietor and manager of the factory, avoided 
the errors committed in the manufacture of 
the Smith cheese. In the Smith cheese the 
moist curds were placed together in the iioop 
anil pressed, where it was found that the 
whey could not be properly expelled. The 
imperfect separation of the whey, as a con¬ 
sequence, soon affected the flavor of the 
cheese. Air. Harris adopted a different 
course. The curds, as they came from the I 
X. A. WILLARD, A. M., EDITOR, 
Of Little F allu, Hekximek Cou.vtv, New Yoke. 
CHEESE FACTORIES — BRANCH 
SYSTEM. 
History o! Lnrtre Cheeses—The Canttiliau 
Alutiitiioih, auil the Factory where it was 
Unde. 
AYe give an illustration of the Ingersoll 
cheese factory of Oxford Co., Canada, some¬ 
what noted as the establishment where the 
lurgest cheese that has ever been made in 
any country was manufactured. The history 
of large cheeses in America dates hack to 
President Jackson’s administration. At that 
time Col. Meachum, of Richland, Oswego 
Co., N. Y., an admirer of the President, 
manufactured a very large cheese, and for¬ 
warded it to Washington as a present to the 
Chief Magistrate, it was a great event in 
the town where it was made, was hauled to 
the shipping point on sleds amid the boom¬ 
ing of cannon and the fume of political en¬ 
thusiasm. 
After the cheese factory system became 
inaugurated, comparatively large cheeses 
were made by Jesse Williams, Air, Tan¬ 
ner, and olher factory manufacturers, which 
attracted considerable attention. These 
cheeses weighed some six or eight hun¬ 
dred pounds each, and though considered 
large when standing beside the of those or¬ 
dinary make, would be deemed small when 
cheese. It was then a year old, and, on in¬ 
troducing the iron, it filled it with a solid 
mass, uniform in color and of good meaty 
texture. The flavor was dean, but sharp, 
resembling somewhat the brandy cheeses so 
Popular with those who like cheese with a 
good deal of taste. Subsequently the big 
cheese was exhibited at the New York State 
Fair at Saratoga, and was finally shipped to 
England, creating quite a sensation in Lon¬ 
don. 
The Ingersoll factory was erected in 1865, 
and is the largest establishment of the kind 
In Canada. The factory is upon the branch 
system, and is managed by a company of 
stockholders. There are seven branch 
factories which make up the milk of about 
800 cows in the aggregate, delivering the 
cheese irom time to time at this central es¬ 
tablishment, where it is put upon the ranges 
and cared for while curing. Cheese is also 
made here, the manufactory being the smaller 
building standing in the center. The other 
buildings arc the “dry houses” for curing 
and storing the cheese. 
Mr. Harris, we believe, was the first to 
introduce the branch factory system into 
Canada, and it has been conducted here 
with great success. To those of our readers 
who may not fully understand how this sys¬ 
tem is managed, a word of exclamation will 
not be out of place. The branch system js 
Dairymen will do well to pay particular 
attention to cows that are about “ coming 
in at this season of the year. Cows that 
were dry in the spring, and that have had a 
long run to grass without giving milk, are 
apt to be fleshy. High condition encourages 
inflammatory diseases at the period of calv- 
mg, especially when the weather is hot. 
2 animals lose their lives, and 
many more an; rendered profitless, for want 
of proper care before and after the time of 
calving. 
Some years since a dairyman of our ac¬ 
quaintance, who had a number of cows 
“ coming in ” late, lost several in succession 
before he was aware of the cause. The 
animals were in high flesh and dropped 
their calves apparently in perfect health. 
The weather was warm; and soon after 
The buildings here arc upon a __ 
scale sufficiently large to hold the make of j Alany valuable 
an entire season for the number of cows we 
have named, or they will accommodate the 
make for a larger number of cows if the 
cheese is to be disposed of at frequent inter¬ 
vals. 
Oxford county is one of the leading dairy 
sections of Canada. It lies due west of 
Central New York, and Ingersoll, its chief 
town, is upon the Great Western Railway, 
about one hundred miles from Niagara Falls' 
The climate here is very' similar to that of 
Western New York, though a little too fur 
from the lakes for the successful growth of 
the peach. The surface of the county is 
undulating, with long ranges of rather level 
lands. The usual character of soil Ls either 
a sandy, gravelly or clayey loam, good for 
barley, peas and wheat, and a fair grazing 
district. It Ls not so well watered with 
streams and springs as Herkimer and Oneida 
counties, N. Y., nor is it equal for the pro¬ 
duction of grass. Upon some of the farms 
in small hoops. In this way the whey was 
thoroughly expelled. The small cheeses 
were then broken up and passed through 
a curd mill, when they were all placed to¬ 
gether in the big hoop and submitted to 
great pressure. 
Air. Harris also devised a plan for keep¬ 
ing the cheese in shape after its removal 
from the press. Outside the cloth bandage 
another bandage of stout wire cloth was 
snugly secured, which most effectually pre¬ 
vented the cheese from spreading; protect¬ 
ing it against accidents, while it did not ex¬ 
clude the air nor offer any obstruction to the 
curing process. A device was also instituted 
for turning the monster upon its range. A 
