EXHIBITION OP 1868. 
445 
heating the water by this means. Another device just put in operation, is a 
nest of hollow cast iron boxes, connected by pipes and set in a brick furnace, 
the fire applied underneath. Mr. Sears, of Madison county, who owns two 
factories, has taken out his steam niigine and has tested this contrivance* 
He says they are the most perfect heaters that have yet been invented, and 
that he would not use an engine if furnished without cost. This new heater 
only costs $760 for a large factory ; it is simple, substantial, and gives perfect 
control of temperature. In a test at his factory, of the wood consumed, he 
finds that three fourths of a cord of three foot wood, will manufactu)-e 12,000 
pounds of cheese. The placing of the sinks below the vats, by which the 
whole mass of whey and curds may run out of the v«ts through a shute at 
one end, is another labor-saving appliance. There are machines for cooling 
the milk in the vats at night, and preventing the cream from rising, operated 
by clock work, and by waste water from the vats. The application of wind 
for raising water to supply factories has been found to work satisfactorily. 
Then there are two processes for extracting butter from whey, which are 
claimed to make good, marketable butter, adding largely to the receipts of 
the factory. The curd mill, though long in use in England, is now just be¬ 
ginning to be introduced in America, and with the best results. Its use is 
not only a saving of labor, but it improves the texture of cheese, rendering 
it more compact or less porous. In the Cheddar process, the curds are put 
in the hoops and pressed ten minutes, then taken out, ground in the curd 
mill, and then salted. This is, I think, an impi'ovement upon our process, 
and should at once be adopted. By it you get a more uniform distribution 
of the salt, and know precisely what is being done, because the curd is uni¬ 
formly drier, and the salt is not carried out in the whey, as in our process. It 
is claimed, too, that by salting before pressure, and while the curd is not suffi¬ 
ciently cool, the salt has the effect of forming a shining, tough pellicle about the 
particles of curd, not only enclosing whey or moisture, but on account of 
which the union is less perfect, and the cheese in consequence less compact. 
Again, the Cheddar dairymen, as soon as they can begin to distinguish an 
acid condition of the whey, immediately commence drawing it from the vat 
and allow the acid to further deyelop itself in the curd spread out, or heaped 
up in the vat or sink. This, I think, is another important improvement, 
which should be adopted at the factories. It is very difficult to regulate the 
final conditions of the curd, under all circumstances in the whey. The acid 
is often pushed forward upon the curd too rapidly, especially in hot and sul¬ 
try weather. Then if there be taints in the milk, the longer the curd is 
steeped in the whey, the more distinct and marked will they be in the 
cheese; but if you get rid of it early, there is more hope of preserving clear 
flavor, since every monient the whey stands under the Influence of heat and 
decomposition, the stronger becomes its odor and taint as every practical 
cheese maker has observed. It is to be doubted whether an uniform fine fla¬ 
vor can be maintained under all the variable o ;pditions of milk, unless this 
principle is recognized. At any rate under this process, there is less difficul¬ 
ty in obtaining desirable results, 
