the morning, the new milk, and that of the preceding night, thus prepared, are poured into a large tub, together with the cream. A piece of rennet, kept in luke-warm water from the preceding evening, is put into the tub in order to coagulate the milk; with which, if the cheese is intended to be colored, a small quantity of arnotto (or of an infusion of marigolds, or carrots,) is rubbed fine and mixed; the whole is then stirred together, and, being covered up warm, it is allowed to stand about half an hour, when it is turned over with a bowl, to separate the whey from the curds, and broken soon after into very small particles: the whey being separated, by standing some time, is taken from the curd, which sinks to the bottom, and is then collected into a part of the tub provided with a slip, or loose board, to cross the diameter of the bottom, for the sole purpose of effecting this separation; on which a board is placed, weighing from sixty to 120 pounds, in order to press out the whey. As soon as it acquires a greater degree of solidity it is cut into slices, and turned over several times, to extract all the whey, and again pressed with weights.

These operations may consume about an hour and a half. It is then taken from the ub and broken very small by the hand, salted, and put into a cheese-vat, the depth of which is enlarged by a tin hoop fitted to the top. The side is then strongly pressed, both by hand and with a board at top, well weighted; and wooden skewers are placed round the cheese, at the centre, which are frequently drawn out. It is then shifted out of the vat, a cloth being previously put on the top of it, and reversed on the cloth into another vat, or again into the same, if well scalded before the cheese be returned to it. The top, or upper part, is next broken by the hand down to the middle, salted, pressed, weighted and skewered as before, till all the whey is extracted. This being done, the cheese is again reversed into another vat, likewise warmed with a cloth under it, and a tin hoop, or binder, put round the upper edge of the cheese and within the sides of the vat; the former being previously enclosed in a cloth, and its edges put within the vessel. These various operations are performed from about seven o'clock in the morning till one at noon. The pressing of the cheese requires about eight hours more, as it must be twice turned in the vat, round which thin wire skewers are passed and shifted occasionally. The next morning it ought to be turned and pressed again, as likewise at night, and on the succeeding day, about the middle of which it is removed to the salting-room, where the outside is salted and a cloth binder tied round it. After this process the cheese is turned twice daily, for six or seven days; then left two or three weeks to dry, during which time it is turned and cleaned every day; and at length deposited in the common cheese-room, on a boarded floor covered with straw, where it is turned daily till it acquires a sufficient degree of hardness. The room should be of a moderate warmth, but no wind, or current of air, must be permitted to enter, as this generally cracks the cheese. Their outsides, or rinds, are sometimes rubbed with butter or oil to give them a coat.

"A dairy farm of 100 acres,' says an intelligent writer on the agriculture of Cheshire, 'is generally divided into the following proportions: from ten to fourteen acres of oats, from six to eight acres of fallow wheat, and the like quantity of summer fallow; the remainder consists of meadow and pasture, the former occupying about twelve acres. The good dairy farmer attends more to the size, form, and produce of the udder of his cow than to any fancied beauty of shape. This consideration induces him to be particular in the breeding and rearing his calves, and in the management of his cows during the winter and summer seasons. The annual quantity of cheese made from each cow varies from 50 to 500 lbs. and upwards, the produce depending on the goodness of the land, the quality of the pasture, the seasons, and the manner in which the stock are wintered. On the whole, the average produce may be estimated at 300 lbs. from each animal. The quantity of milk yielded daily by each cow, according to this estimate, will be about eight quarts, which it is calculated will produce one pound of cheese.

'On the dairy farms one woman-servant is generally kept to every ten cows, who is employed in winter in spinning, and other household business, but in milking is assisted by all the other servants of the farm. The cheese is chiefly sold in London, being exported from Chester, Frodsham-bridge, and Warrington. Α large quantity goes to Liverpool and Bristol, some more is disposed of to the Yorkshire dealers, and some goes into Scotland. The proper season for calving is reckoned to be from the beginning of March to the beginning of May; and during these months there is more veal fed in Cheshire than in any other county in the kingdom, though generally killed to spare the milk.'

Gloucester cheese is made of milk immediately from the cow; but which, in summer, is thought too hot, and is therefore lowered to the requisite degree of heat, before the rennet is added, by pouring in skim-milk, or, if that will not answer, by the addition of water. As soon as the curd 'is come,' it is broken with a double cheeseknife, and also with the hand, in order to clear it from the whey, which is ladled off. The curd, being thus freed from the principal part of the whey, is put into vats, which are set in the press for ten or fifteen minutes, in order to extract all the remaining liquid. It is then turned out of the vats into the cheese-tubs again; broken small and scalded with a pail-full of water, lowered with whey, about three parts water to one of whey; and the whole is briskly agitated, the curd and water being equally mixed together. After having stood a few minutes, to let the curd subside, the liquor is poured off; and the former collected into a vat, the 'surface of which is, when about half full, sprinkled with a little salt, that is worked in among the curd. The vat is then filled up, and the whole mass turned two or three times in it, the edges being pared and the middle rounded up at each turning. At length the curd is put into a cloth and placed in the press, whence it is carried to the shelves, and turned, generally, once a day till it has acquired a sufficient degree

of compactness to enable it to undergo the operation of washing.

Parmesan cheese has long been famous for its richness and flavor; the following mode of manufacture is described in the Annales de Chemie. The size of these cheeses varies from sixty to 180 pounds, according to the number of cows in each dairy. During the heat of summer cheese is made every day, but in the cooler months milk will keep longer, and the cheese is made every other day. The summer cheese, which is the best, is made of the evening milk, after having been skimmed in the morning and at noon. Both kinds of milk are poured together into a caldron capable of holding about 130 gallons, of the shape of an inverted bell, and suspended on the arm of a lever so as to be moved off and on the fire at pleasure. In this caldron the milk is gradually heated to the temperature of about 120°; it is now removed from the fire, and kept quiet for five or six minutes. When all internal motion has ceased, the rennet is added; this substance is composed of the stomach of a calf, fermented together with wheaten meal and salt; and the method of using it is to tie a piece, of the size of a hazel nut, in a piece of linen cloth, and steep it in the milk, squeezing it from time to time; a sufficiency of rennet soon passes through the cloth into the milk, which now to be well stirred, and afterwards left to rest that it may coagulate. In about an hour the coagulation is complete, and then the milk is again put over the fire, and raised to a temperature of about 145 degrees.

During the time it is heating the mass is briskly agitated, till the curd separates in small lumps; part of the whey is then taken out, and a small portion of saffron is added to the remainder in order to color it. When the curd is thus broken sufficiently small, nearly the whole of the whey is taken out and two pailfuls of cold water is poured in; the temperature is thus lowered so as to enable the dairyman to collect the curd, by passing a cloth underneath it and gathering it up at the corners; the curd is now pressed into a frame of wood like a bushel without a bottom, placed on a solid table and covered by a round piece of wood, having a great stone or weight on the top. In the course of the night it cools, assumes a firm consistence, and parts with the whey; the next day one side is rubbed with salt, and the succeeding day the cheese is turned and the other side is rubbed with salt in the same manner as before. This alternate salting of each side is practised for about forty days; after this period the outer crust of the cheese is pared off, and the fresh surface is coated with linseed oil. The convex sides are then colored red with arnotto, and the cheese is fit for sale.

The Stilton cheeses, called the Parmesan of England, are usually made in cylindrical vats, and weigh from six to twelve pounds each. Immediately after they are made they should be put into boxes made éxactly to fit them, as they are so extremely rich, that, without this precaution, they would be apt to bulge out and break asunder. In these boxes they should be daily turned, and kept two years; they are then fit for sale. Some make them in a net like a caboage-net, so that

they appear when made like an acorn; but these are never so good as the others, having a thicker coat, and wanting the rich flavor and mellowness of the others. The manufacture of these cheeses is not confined to Stilton and its neighbourhood; as many other persons in Huntingdonshire, and also Rutland and Northampton shires, make a similar sort, sell them for the same price, and give them the name of Stilton cheeses. It is observed by Mr. Hazard, that, though the farmers about Stilton are remarkable for the cleanliness of their dairies, they take very little pains with the rennet; for if they did they would not have so many faulty and unsound cheeses. The inhabitants of other countries might make as good cheese as that of Stilton if they would adhere to the same plan, which is this:-They make a cheese every morning, and to this meal of new milk they add the cream taken from that which was milked the night before. This, and the age of their cheeses, it is said, are the only reasons why they are preferred to others, their land not being in any respect superior to that of other countries.

In the Bath Papers, Mr. Hazard gives the following receipt for making rennet. 'When the maw-skin is well prepared and fit for the purpose, three pints or two quarts of soft water, clean and sweet, should be mixed with salt, wherein should be put sweet-brier, rose-leaves and flowers, cinnamon, cloves, mace, and, in short, almost every sort of spice and aromatic that can be procured; and if these are put into two quarts of water, they must boil gently till the liquor is reduced to three pints, and care should be taken that this liquid is not smoked; it should be strained clear from the spices, &c., and, when not warmer than milk from the cow, it should be poured upon the vell or maw; a lemon may then be sliced into it, when it may remain a day or two; after which it should be strained again and put into a bottle, where, if well corked, it will keep good for twelve months, or more: it will smell like a perfume, and a small quantity of it will turn the milk, and give the cheese a pleasing flavor.'

The method of making green cheese we should not, perhaps, omit. In a cheese of this sort, of about ten or twelve pounds weight, an infusion is made by steeping about two handfuls of sage, and one of marigold leaves, with a little parsley, after being bruised, one night in a proper quantity of milk. In the morning the greened milk is strained off, and mixed with about one-third of the whole quantity to be run. The green and the white milks are then run separately, keeping the two curds distinct, until they are ready for vatting. The mixing of them depends on the fancy of the maker. In some cases the two are connected together, blending them in an even and intimate manner; in others, the green curd is broken down into irregular fragments, or cut out in irregular figures by means of proper tins. In the operation of vatting, the fragments or figures are placed on the outsides. The bottom of the vat is first set with them, crumbling the white or yellow curd among them. As the vat fills, others are placed at the edges, and the remainder buried flush with the top. In the management

afterwards, the same plan is pursued as those which we have already described for common

cheese.

A dairy house should have a northern aspect, if possible, and good ventilation. The regulation of temperature may be accomplished on the plan suggested by Dr. Anderson, of having double walls and roofs; or by means of hollow walls; and for common purposes by the walls having a vacuity left, of eight or ten inches in width, between the lath and plaster. According to the nature of the business to be carried on in them, these buildings will be of course regulated, both in regard to their size and the number of their conveniences: as whether they are used for butter, cheese, or milk; the number of cows which are kept, &c. In the Gloucester dairy houses twenty feet by sixteen are the usual dimensions for forty cows; and thirty feet by forty for 100

cows.

A butter dairy should consist of three rooms, or apartments: namely, a milk room, a churning room with necessary apparatus, and a room for the different utensils, and the cleaning and airing them in, when it may be requisite. The cheese dairy should, in the same manner, be composed of three rooms; one for the reception of the milk; another for the scalding and pressing of the cheese; and a third for the purpose of salting it in. In addition, there ought to be a room for the stowing of the cheese, which may conveniently be a loft made over the dairy. It is frequently at a distance, which is inconvenient and troublesome.

The milk dairy only requires two good rooms, one for the reception of the milk, and another for the purpose of serving it out in, and that of scalding, cleaning, and airing the different utensils.

The utensils of a cheese dairy are, the cheese tub, in which the curd is broken, and prepared; the cheese-knife, commonly a thin spatula of wood or iron, for the purpose of cutting or breaking down the curd; the cheese-cloth, a piece of thin gauze, in which the cheese is placed in the press; a circular cheese-board; a strong wooden vat, and cheese-press.

The last article is generally constructed with a common wooden screw, though sometimes a large weight is used. The diagram represents a

very commodious one. Churns are almost endless in their variety of shapes, and supposed recommendations. Our article CHURN exhibits an improved mode of working this important utensil. We may add, in conclusion, that Mr. Dicas of Liverpool has lately invented a lactometer "for ascertaining the richness of milk from its specific gravity, and its degree of warmth taken by a thermometer, on comparing its specific gravity with its warmth.'

It is a glass tube a foot-long, with a funnel at top; the upper two inches being marked in small divisions, just under the funnel; when the instrument is filled to the height of one foot with milk, the depth of cream it yields is noted by the gradations on the upper part.

An invention of a similar kind has been noticed by the Highland Society of Scotland, in their Report for 1816: Mrs. Lovi's aereometric beads, by which the specific gravity of the milk is tried first when new milked, and again when the cream is removed. When milk is tried as soon as it cools,' observes this Report,' say to 60°, and again, after it has been thoroughly skimmed, it will be found that the skimmed milk is of considerably greater gravity; and as this increase depends upon the separation of the lighter cream, the amount of the increase, or the difference between the specific gravity of the fresh and skimmed milk, will bear proportion to, and may be employed as a measure of, the relative quantities of the oily matter or butter contained in different milks. The specific gravity of skimmed milk depends both on the quantity of the saccharo-saline matters, and of the curd. To estimate the relative quantities of curd, and by that determine the value of milk for the purpose of yielding cheese, it is only required to curdle the skim milk, and ascertain the specific gravity of the whey. The whey will, of course, be found of lower specific gravity than the skimmed milk, and the number of degrees of difference affords a measure of the relative quantities of the curd. According to this hypothesis, the aereometric beads may be employed to ascertain the qualities of milk, relatively both to the manufacture of butter and cheese.' But neither of these inventions, though in themselves ingenious, have been extensively used.

The fixtures of a respectable dairy are, a copper boiler in the scalding-room; benches and shelves in this room and the cheese-room; a bench or table about two feet wide round the milk-room; and a pump in the centre of the latter.

The utensils of a butter dairy are, pails; sieves of hair cloth, or silver-wire cloth for straining the milk; milk dishes or coolers; an ivory or bone cream-knife, and skimming dishes of willow or ivory; bowls; barrel, or other milk churns; butter-makers; and a portable rack for drying dishes in the air; tubs, &c.

DAIS, in botany, a genus of the monogynia order, and decandria class of plants; natural order, thirty-first, vepreculæ : involucrum tetraphyllous COR. quadrifid, or quinquefid: FRUIT monospermous berry. Species three, natives of South Sea Isles.