IT is generally admitted that many dairy farmers pay more attention to
the quantity than the quality of this article of food; now, as cheese is
"a surly elf, digesting every thing but itself," (this of course applies
to some of the white oak specimens, which, like the Jew's razors, were
made to sell,) it is surely a matter of great importance that they
should attend more to the quality, especially if it be intended for
exportation. There is no doubt but the home consumption of good cheese
would soon materially increase, for many thousands of our citizens
refuse to eat of the miserable stuff "misnamed cheese."
The English have long been celebrated for the superior quality of their
cheese; and we have thought that we cannot do a better service to our
dairy farmers than to give, in as few words as possible, the various
methods of making the different kinds of cheese, for which we are
indebted to Mr. Lawson's work on cattle.
"It is to be observed, in general, that cheese varies in quality,
according as it has been made of milk of one meal, or two meals, or of
skimmed milk; and that the season of the year, the method of milking,
the preparation of the rennet, the mode of coagulation, the breaking and
gathering of the curd, the management of the cheese in the press, the
method of salting, and the management of the cheese-room, are all
objects of the highest importance to the cheese manufacturer; and yet,
notwithstanding this, the practice, in most of these respects, is still
regulated by little else than mere chance or custom, without the
direction of enlightened observation or the aid of well-conducted
experiment.