keeping qualities, I regard as a very great improvement over the swill butter made somewhere on the road between the cheese vat and the pig pen.

The cream having been disposed of in some way, and the milk at the temperature of 84 deg., the coloring matter should be added in just such quantity as the consumers demand. Unless the annatto is well dissolved and thoroughly stirred into the milk, the cheese, when cut, will present a mottled appearance, which is altogether worse than if uncolored.

If the cheese is to be kept a year or more, add sufficient rennet to coagulate milk in about fifty minutes; but if it is intended for early use, a sufficient amount of rennet should be used to coagulate it in from thirty to forty minutes.

The rennet must be thoroughly stirred into the milk to insure its action upon the whole mass at the same time.

cut.

As soon as the curdled milk will break clean when the finger is dipped into it and raised up in a horizontal position, it is ready to Now if the curd could be cut into cubic blocks one half inch in size at a single operation the best results would be obtained, but as no way of doing this has yet been discovered it must be done with a knife requiring as few motions and with as little friction as possible, for all crushing and bruising of the curd at this stage of the process will cause waste.

This fact should be kept in view during the entire process of cheese-making: That if there is any waste the butter is invariably the part lost.

After the curd has become somewhat firm, and settled about one seventh of its depth below the surface of the whey, heat may be applied gradually until the temperature is raised to 90 degs.

If the heat is equally distributed very little stirring will be necessary, only enough to prevent the curd from settling in a mass on the bottom of the vat, and if any stirring is to be done while the curd is soft and tender it should be done with the utmost care, and the whey should all be left on, as the curd will move with less crushing in a large quantity of whey. As soon as the curd becomes of sufficient firmness, so that it may be gently stirred without waste, the whey may be drawn down to near the surface of the curd, and the heat raised to 98 degs. or 100 degs., and maintained at about this temperature until the cooking or scalding process, as it is called, is completed. This is determined by the condition of the curd, in the following manner: Take a hand

ful of curd, squeeze the whey out, and if the curd will drop apart as the hand is opened, the cooking has been carried far enough, and should be arrested, either by drawing off the whey or cooling down to the temperature of the room by the use of cold water between the vats.

After a little experience the careful cheese-maker will be enabled to turn off the heat in time to give the curd the required firmness by the time the temperature of the curd has fallen to a level with that of the cheese room.

And whenever the judgment of the cheese-maker, and the condition of the curd will warrant the adoption of this plan, it will be found less laborious and more economical.

Under the old system of cheese-making the curd was drained at this stage, then salted, and put to press.

But another chemical change is now considered necessary for the production of the finest quality of cheese. The milk sugar must partly change to lactic acid. This change should never take place until after the cooking process is completed. The acidifying process, as it is called, is by far the most important point in the whole process of cheese-making. To insure the right scald, and the right degree of acidity, care and good common sense are required, and in addition, an apprenticeship is absolutely neces

sary.

No rules can be given on paper which will serve the cheesemaker as an unerring guide by which these two important points can be decided so long as milk is ever varying in composition, and changing its condition with every change of temperature, from the moment it is drawn from the cows until it is manufactured into cheese.

These two vital points in cheese-making must be determined by sight, taste and smell. And as no two persons possess these senses in precisely the same degree of perfection for any considerable time, for the reason that they are liable to destruction and capable of improvement, no rules, as I said before, can serve and guide alike two individuals in the use of these faculties.

The most common practice of our Herkimer dairymen is to allow sufficient whey to remain in the vat to cover the curd until the degree of acidity desired is obtained, when the whey is drained off and the curd salted and put to press. The acid will always be detected in the whey before it can be discovered in the

curd, and when both are left in the vat the whey should be decidedly sour and the curd perceptibly sour.

But the better way is to draw off the whey as soon as the cooking is completed, pack the curd together in one end of the vat, elevate sufficiently to allow the whey to drain off, and let it remain until the required degree of acidity is obtained. The whey often contains some disturbing element injurious to the cheese, and when it can be of no further service its absence is more desirable than its company. The curd, moreover, is improved by exposure to the atmosphere in its texture and its color. The curd may be exposed to the atmosphere while undergoing the acidifying process by splitting it apart horizontally with the hands, and spreading it out and turning it over, according to Mr. McAdam's plan for making Cheddar cheese; but the best time for exposing the curd to the action of the atmosphere is after grinding and salting. Most dairymen who practice grinding the curd, do it as soon as it becomes sufficiently soured. To this practice there are two objections. First, the quantity of whey contained in the curd is never known; and second, the amount of salt dissolved by the whey and carried out with it is likewise unknown.

The safer way is to press nearly all the whey out of the curd, which can be done in a few moments, without waste, if the cheese has been rightly manufactured, and then to slice up the curd with a knife, run it through the curd mill, and salt it. The early cheese, known as "hay cheese," should be salted at the rate of one pound of good salt for sixty pounds of curd. The proportion for grass cheese, up to about the first of September, should range from fifty-two to fifty-eight pounds of curd to one of salt. From the first of September to the close of the season, one pound of salt will be sufficient for from fifty-eight to sixty-six pounds of curd.

I would add that where the curd is pressed before salting, the salt must be fine and thoroughly mixed with the curd. If the curd is not pressed before salting, an average of one pound of salt for forty pounds of curd will be found none too much, and may be varied through the season as above directed.

When the temperature of the curd at the time of salting, is above that of the cheese-room, it should be spread in the vat and cooled to an even temperature with the atmosphere surrounding it, or near it, before putting it to press.

And now, in conclusion, allow me to present for consideration the following propositions:

First. Perfect neatness in everything pertaining to the dairy is an absolute necessity.

Second. Milk free from all impurities, taints and odors, or in other words, pure milk, is essential to success.

Third. The greater the yield of cheese from a given quantity of milk, the better the quality; and the less the yield, the poorer the quality.

Fourth. The cheese-maker must be qualified for the business, first, by nature; second, by study; and third, by practice.

And, finally, unfailing success will attend those cheese-makers only who attend in time to all the minutia of the business.

In reply to a question Mr. Lewis said: To salt the curd without draining it, is the general practice, and where curd-mills are used, the curd is seldom pressed before grinding; but I would always do it, for you avoid guess-work-you never can tell how much salt the whey will carry out with it. If no mistake has been made in the operations I have described, you can press your cheese lightly or heavily, just as you choose. It used to be thought that an increasing pressure was necessary to secure good cheese, but I now conclude that the amount of pressure is of little consequence. If your cheese is made right, it won't hurt it either way; if it is made wrong, neither light nor heavy pressure will help it. The "white whey " or cream cannot be saved; it will go off in the dry-room, if not before. I have had cheese out of which the butter would ooze, in the dry-room-it was made up too sweet, before the milk was fairly "ripe," as I term it. Many cheese-makers have yet to learn that milk must be kept at least twelve hours before it will make good cheese; if made up before, poor cheese will result, and the fault is not in the rennet or the salt or the pressing. The cream cannot be saved after it is once skimmed; when the separation is once made, it is a final divorce. I think curd will take the salt as well warm as if cooled; but my practice is to turn off the heat at such a time that the curd shall be of about the right temperature when it is sufficiently firm to put in the hoop. Experience shows the advantage of this; but there is no objection to salting the curd warm.

ON THE SUGAR BEET FOR STOCK FEEDING.

BY HON. HENRY LANE OF CORNWALL, VT.

The first and most important question for the dairyman to decide, is the selection of his cows. When the best selection has been made, the question next in importance is their feeding and management. The highest success will depend very much upon the amount and quality of food furnished; and unless supplied with an abundance of nutritious food for all seasons of the year, the farmer's expectations will be likely to be disappointed. One cow well fed will yield more profit to her owner than two equally good cows on less and poorer feed. The variation in the yield of milch cows is caused as much by the variation in the quantity and quality of their food, as it is by the difference in their milking qualities. A cow should be fed till she is satisfied, with food which contains a sufficient amount of nutriment, yet the food must have bulk sufficient to fill up to a certain degree the organs of digestion. In a good cow the excess of food over what is required to sustain life will go to the production of milk. It is poor economy to attempt to keep too many cows for the amount of food at command. The great secret of success is to keep the cows constantly in good condition.

Hay and grass are the most natural, the most important, food for cows. Let our other feeding be what it may, these will form the basis of every system of feeding. A cow will give more milk on fresh grass than on any other food, but our pastures begin to fail early, and by the last of August or the first of September are parched and dry. If we attempt to make up by allowing a larger range for the same number of animals, the feed outgrows the animals, and becoming rank and unsavory is no longer satisfactory to them, or profitable to the owner. In dry seasons our pastures do not hold out to exceed three months, and if in favorable years, and by turning into our meadows (which is of doubtful policy,) we can prolong the season of abundant grass to five months, it still leaves two months during which it is desirable to keep up a rich flow of milk. As our pastures do not supply materials for this, they must be supplemented from other sources. If during a dry, hot season, or from any cause, our cows fail to receive a good supply of succulent food for a short time, they will shrink much in the flow of milk, and the most generous feeding subsequently will fail to restore their usual yield, but will tend rather to lay on