THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
9 
April 4.] 
sess. “ But ye say, wherein have we robbed thee ? In tithes 
and offerings !” 
Let fanners remember this; and when they grumble at 
the times and at the poor, let them remember, too, that “ he 
that giveth to the poor, lendeth to the Lord !” 
CHEESE-MAKING. 
There are very few domestic operations which have not, 
in some form or other, been facilitated by the aids of modern 
science. The increased facilities, thus afforded, have ex¬ 
tended even t,o dairy operations. Butter, cheese, and milk 
have all been better managed since the food of cows has 
been more correctly understood, and better varieties of 
roots introduced for winter keep. The progress of improve¬ 
ment lias, of necessity, been far from rapid, because of the 
little correct knowledge generally possessed on the subject, 
and the very varying action of the food from even adjoining 
grass pastures upon the quantity and quality of the milk of 
the cow. This paucity of information has been peculiarly the 
case in the instance of cheese dairying; still something has 
been done : some few improved “ clieese crumbs " have been 
recently gathered, and it is to these to which I propose to 
confine my attention in this cattle paper. As I had occasion 
to remark in another valuable pieriodical (Bell's Messenger), 
the art and mystery of cheese-making has been left chiefly 
(as in the olden time) to the care and skill of the dairymaid 
and the farmer’s wife; and they have, in many instances, 
made observations and produced results which the philoso¬ 
pher has not always very successfully explained. Our igno¬ 
rance, however, on these points affords us ample reasons for 
gathering together the little modern improvements which 
have been made in cheese-making in different localities. 
Produced from the milk of domestic animals, it will be well 
to remind the young daily-keeper of what that milk is com¬ 
monly composed. This has been given in a tabular form by 
Professor J. F. Johnston. One hundred parts of milk then 
contain— 
Casein or curd 
Butter 
Milk sugar .. 
Saline matter 
Water 
Of the Cow, Goat. 
..4 3 4 1 
..31 33 
..4 8 5 3 
.. 0 0 0 0 
.. 87 0 80 7 
The Cheshire practice of cheese-making has been described 
at considerable length by Mr. H. Wright (Journal R. A. S., 
vol. vi., p. 103 ). From that essay the practical portion of 
the details may be gleaned. The operations in four different 
Cheshire dairies are given by him in a tabular form ; No. 1 
and 2 of these dairies were in Bucklow Hundred, No. 3 in 
Nantwieh Hundred, and No. 4 in Eddisbury Hundred. The 
milk produced from these at two milkings, except No. 2, 
which was from four milkings, and the number of the cows, 
were as follows :— 
Date. 
Cows. 
Gals, of milk. 
No. 1 
. Nov. 21 
42 
43 
— 
. Aug. 17 
48 
112 
2 
Oct. 13 
10 
24 
3 
Aug. 10 
26 
56 
4 
. Aug. 19 
53 
107 
The temperature of this milk when the rennet was put in, 
and of the dairy-room in which the cheese was made, the salt 
used internally, and the weight of the cheese a day or two 
after making, were— 
Temp. 
Temp, of 
Salt 
Weight 
of milk. 
Dairy. 
lb. oz. 
lb. 
No. 1 .. 83° 
68 u 
1 1 
.. 55 
2 .. 78 
— 
0 4 
.. — 
3 ., _ 
78 
1 0 
.. 60 
4 .. 77 
64 to '09 
4 4 
.. — 
The recent improvements which have been gradually in¬ 
troduced into Cheshire since the days of Dr. Holland, who 
long since described its agriculture, has been given by Mr. 
W. Palin (ibid, vol. v., p. 88). The first process of breaking 
down the curd in the cheese-tub is now generally performed 
by a breaker or curd-cutter, the dairy-maid alone walking 
round the tub, and pressing the breaker slowly through the 
curd at first, and more rapidly as she proceeds with her work, 
until it is reduced to small particles, when it sinks to the 
bottom of the tub. This practice supersedes the old mode 
of three women kneeling round the tub, and breaking the | 
curd with then’ fingers. The next improvement is the curd 
mill, which is for the purpose of breaking the curd after j 
being drained from the whey in the cheese-vat, before finally 
putting it under the press, instead of the old tedious plan of 
again breaking it with the hands. The greatest improve¬ 
ment, however, yet effected, is by the introduction of a lever- 
press, which is self-acting, and may be used during the 
process of making. This invention renders unnecessary the | 
previous custom of kneeling upon and pressing the cheese j 
with a board, or two or three persons thrusting it with then' 
hands, or pressing it for a time, before placing it under the j 
heavy stone press. The great advantage of this machine 
consists in its being regulated by a small weight on the 
beam, by which the pressure upon the cheese can be in¬ 
creased or diminished at pleasure. It is also portable; and 
as warmth is very essential during the time of pressing, 
especially in cold weather, it can be conveniently removed to 
any warm situation. Artificial heat is now introduced into 
many cheese-rooms, either [by means of hot-air stoves, or 
steam conveyed in cast-iron pipes through the rooms, for 
the purpose of forwarding the ripening of the cheese. By 
these means, large dairies, which formerly were scarcely ever 
marketable before April or May, are now sold as early as 
October or November. 
In all daily operations an attention to the temperature of 
the milk and of the dairy-room seems most important—an 
attention which it will be highly important to regulate by the 
thermometer. This seemed to be generally admitted at a 
recent practical discussion at one of the meetings of the 
Burton-on-Trent Farmers’ Club, the report of which may be 
perused by the young cheese-maker with considerable advan¬ 
tage (Farmers’ Magazine, vol. xxxi. p. 531):—“I have 
found,” observed Mr. Gretton, one of the practical dairy 
owners who addressed the meeting, “ that with a heat of 
from 82 to 80 degs. when the rennet is applied, the curd will 
separate from the whey; and I consider it desirable to use 
the lowest temperature which will insure the clearness of 
the whey. But as the curd is tender when gathered from 
milk at that temperature, I have adopted the plan of render- | 
ing it firm by pouring over it water or whey, heated to a 
given point. This method is often pursued, but seldom, 1 
believe, with the exactness necessary to insure its constant 
success. All depends on the degree of heat at which the 
liquor is applied. My experience goes to prove that if the 
curd be raised to the heat of about 84 to 80 clegs., it becomes 
sufficiently firm for all the ends it is desirable to attain. 
“ I believe that cheese-makers generally who scale the curd 
do not use a sufficient quantity of liquor for the purpose, and 
make it too hot; and in such cases it is obvious that a paid 
of the curd which first comes in contact with the hot liquor 
will become raised very much above 84 degrees. I have 
therefore taken care to use a larger quantity of liquor at a 
lower temperature. The quantity of liquor which we use for 
curd, which yields 44 lb of (by cheese, is nine gallons, at a 
temperature of 94 to 98 degrees, according to the degree of 
heat of the curd in the pan. 
“ You will at once see that unless a thermometer lie used, 
this operation would be liable to such a degree of uncer¬ 
tainty as would effectually prevent the cheese of one day 
being like that of another. I cannot, therefore, too strongly 
point out to you that this instrument ought to be an invari¬ 
able article of furniture in the dairy. To reduce the milk 
from 98, at which heat it comes from the cow, to 8.2 or 84, at 
which we put the rennet to it, we have sometimes added cold 
water, and sometimes cooled part of the milk in shallow 
vessels. I have observed no ill effect from the addition of 
cold witter; but, perhaps, when other conveniences are at 
hand for cooling the milk quickly, it may be advisable to use 
them in preference, to cold water. 
“ Saltpetre is added to the milk after the proportion of half 
an ounce to 50 gallons. The time allowed before breaking 
up the curd is the same as I stated in my account of my first 
year's make; but instead of gathering by hand as we did part 
of the first year, a gatherer (the invention of Mr. Carington, 
of Creighton, near Uttoxctcr) is used, with some alterations 
which I have made in it. I have enlarged the gatherer so 
as to make it fit the inside of the cheesepan, and have ap 
plied a screw instead of weights to compress the curd, and 
