the poorness of quality found in many of the cheeses which so many of the London dealers now complain of is not caused by the cream being extracted, as is often alleged, but by the

FIG. 1.-Mr. Henry Morris's cheese room.

injudicious handling of the milk and curd, and the want of proper knowledge and personal attention to details.

:

Some of the causes were stated to be as follows:-
1. Putting the milk together too hot.

2. The injudicious use of rennet.

3. Knocking the curd about too much.

4. Want of acidity at the time of breaking and salting.
5. Too much acidity in the curd when put into the hoops,
which causes the curd to go hard.

6. The use of sour milk, which makes dry cheese.

7. Improper temperatures at different stages of the making and ripening.

8. The uneven mixing of two curds, the uneven mixing of salt, and the insufficient draining of the curd, each causing yellowish brown discoloration.

9. Crowding in the draining and coating rooms caused by too much cheese being made at once.

I found that some of the leading makers buy a considerable quantity of milk, which they mix together and turn into cheese. The results are said to be very good, but the quality and condition of the milk supplied has to be carefully watched, as sour milk is said to make cheese of inferior quality.

I give, in figs. 1 and 2, two illustrations of making rooms. The larger one, belonging to Mr. Henry Morris (fig. 1), is situated at Stathern, and is a good type of a dairy in which a considerable amount of milk is dealt with. The size of Mr. Morris's dairy is 31 by 21 feet, outside measure.

The other, shown in fig. 2, is at the British Dairy Institute at Reading.

Four rooms are recommended for the manufacture of Stilton cheese, viz. making room, draining room, coating room, and store room, the size of the rooms depending on the quantity of milk to be dealt with. As a rule, I found that the draining of the cheeses is done in the making room. All the rooms were capable of being heated, the usual plan being to have hot-water pipes near the ceiling, so as to be away from the dirt. The coating and store rooms had plenty of ventilation, but care was taken that there should be no direct draught on the cheese. Most of the ventilators were covered with fine zinc, and had wooden slides. I noticed that many of the windows had frosted glass in them, and that the store rooms generally had shutters. Great care has to be taken to keep out the flies, which are said to be very troublesome and to damage the cheese. For the store room a northern aspect is preferred. In the more modern buildings the floor of the making room was of cement or red

tiles, and the walls were covered with white tiles. In most places, however, the walls were merely whitened. It is said that

the use of lime-wash injures the cheese, and that the same remark applies to new buildings until they get seasoned.

It was a treat to hear how the work was schemed in the

From a photograph)

[by S. Victor White & Co., Reading.

rooms which were not very conveniently placed. In the olderfashioned farmhouses the store room is often in the house itself, and there is a considerable smell from the ripening cheese, which to a stranger is not very pleasant. The drains were outside the buildings, and were trapped and, as a rule, ventilated. In most of the places the whey ran by gravitation through earthenware pipes to the piggeries. I am told that lead pipes are good for carrying away the whey. Personal experience has proved that galvanised pipes soon fur up and corrode when used for conveying skim milk or whey. It is well to have a place at the top and bottom of the pipes for conveying the whey, in which draining rods can be inserted to clear the pipes in case they get furred up.

The following are the principal utensils used:

1. Tin vat, plain or jacketed.

2. Tin scoop with thin edge, to hold about half a gallon of curd.

3. Curd sink, made of earthenware or tin.

4. Straining cloths, from 36 to 45 inches square.

5. Tin draining sink.

6. Tin with holes to go on the bottom of the drainer.

7. Pieces of wood to hold the strainer in the curd sink. 8. Perforated metal hoops.

9. Wooden boards to go under the hoops.

10. Draining shelves.

11. Shelves for coating room.

12. Table for turning the cheese, knife, calico, brush for mites, measuring glass for rennet, &c. &c.

Of course, the size of the different utensils and the draining shelves depends on the quantity of milk to be handled. The draining shelves have a rim round them, and are so constructed that the whey when it comes from the hoops runs along the groove and down a string into a vessel placed below the drainer. Most of these utensils can be seen in the preceding illustrations.

Cheese-making as a rule begins on March 25, when the milk contracts end, and goes on until the end of September, and even later in some cases.

The temperature at which the making room is kept seems to vary from 60° to 65°. Milk is brought straight into the dairy and carefully sieved into the vat. Where milk is Lought, great care is taken to see that the quality is good and that it is not sour. In hot weather rennet is generally added when the milk is 80°, and in cold weather when it is 84° to 85°.

The rennet generally used is that made from dry or wet skins (or vells), which are said to vary greatly in quality, and VOL. X. T. 8.-38

BB

Much importance seems

at times are difficult to obtain good.
to be attached to getting the proper sort of skins.

There is no fixed rule as to the amount of home-made rennet to be used. The strength of each lot is tested, and the amount to be used is determined-by some makers by its power to coagulate the milk in a fixed time, which is said to be from 15 to 25 minutes, and by others by the appearance of the whey. I was told that on an average it was about 1 oz. of rennet to 5 gallons of milk, and that it varied from 4 oz. to 6 oz. according to the quality of the rennet and the quality of the milk. The object aimed at is to get the curd ready for ladling in from 1 to 11⁄2 hours.

Vells obtained from underfed calves are said to be of poor quality, whereas skins from well-fed calves which have sucked the cows till fat are highly prized. There seems no doubt that proper renneting plays a most important part in the manufacture of Stilton cheese. The following are a few particulars given to me by Mr. Miles Benson respecting the collection of vells and the subsequent curing of them. These vells, before they come into the hands of the cheese-maker, pass through the hands of two persons who appear to make a specialty, and most probably a living, out of their particular trade. They are first of all obtained by the collector, who has a connection with all the best butchers, and are packed in layers of salt in barrels in order to keep them in good condition during their journey. Then they are handed to the person or firm who dry and cut them into the form as sent out to the cheese-maker. This process occupies some weeks. In order to preserve vells to the best advantage they should be kept hanging from a dry ceiling or from some perfectly dry place where there is a circulation of pure air. Usually they are tied up in little bundles of a dozen in paper, and hung up from a kitchen ceiling. Under these conditions they will keep good from one to two years. In packing them to go abroad, it is recommended to pack them in dry hay in an ordinary box. Under these conditions they will keep right for any time up to two months.

No one seems to use Hansen's rennet, though Mr. John Benson, in his article on Stilton cheese, states that "in using prepared rennet the makers accustomed to the home-made article make no allowance for the strength of the former, and consequently add too much. This results in an inferior cheese, but the fault is due to the maker, and not to the rennet." When Hansen's rennet is used, it is said to be at about the rate of 1 drachm to every 3 or 4 gallons of milk. Care is taken that the mixing is done thoroughly by gently stirring the milk