As a maker, I have had opportunities of seeing milk in all stages and
in all conditions, and I have found it an invariable rule that the
milk furnished by farmers who read and studied the dairy question
in all of its phases; who were conversant with dairy literature and
adopted the most improved methods extant for producing an abundant,
pure and rich flow of milk, were enough affected by the ideas
absorbed from library and press to be unconsciously moulded by their
influence. On the other hand, farmers who never read; who avoided
all progressive methods as “new-fangled notions” and clung to the
primitive ways of their ancestors, forgetful that those ancestors
adopted nothing new because there was no new thing to adopt,
furnished milk sometimes good, often poor, and never profitable to
themselves. A man who doesn’t have an opinion on the relative value
of milch breeds, who doesn’t know how to feed scientifically and who
has narrow conceptions of systematic dairying, generally is, in this
competitive epoch, an agricultural cipher.
The other day the writer inspected two cheese factories, separated
by only a few miles, each being located on admirable sites and
accessible to water. Previous to my visit I had been told that the
maker in B——’s factory had, during the past season, produced poor,
uneven stock, which was a surprise to his friends, as his trade
reputation was excellent. On the other hand, I knew that the cheese
from W——’s factory, although manufactured by a man of less experience
than his rival, had sold at prices above the former’s and footed up
a lower ratio. As soon as I had seen the interior of each building
the sequel was made plain to me, and subsequent investigation proved
it. The first named factory was a mere shell, furnished with utensils
both primitive and worn out; the second was a tight, plastered
structure and equipped with all of the paraphernalia essential to
a modern cheese building. The competition was like running a pony
express against a United States mail train.
A cheese factory needs good, improved utensils, just the same as a
farm requires machinery of the latest patterns. It should have a
boiler, because steam heating is cheaper, more under control and,
consequently, safer for scalding than where fire under heating is
employed. It should be furnished with a curd mill, because with one
the maker has the acid almost completely under control. Without
a mill, the whey must be retained until nearly enough acid has
developed to meet the requisite gauge. Then it must be hastily drawn
and hastily salted, with the whey not all out of it; too often the
acid is in advance of the maker’s expectations. Cheese made in this
way from day to day cannot help but be uneven in flavor, in salt and
in acid. “Salting in the whey,” as it is called, without a mill is
wasteful, too. As the whey flows off, the constant tendency of the
curd is to pack, and hand manipulation to prevent this will start
white whey, the life blood of the cheese, in wasteful quantities.
With a mill to use, all this is changed. The whey can be drawn when
but very little acid has appeared, and the curd, packed and drained,
waits for the sourness to develop there. It matures more slowly than
when submerged in whey, and when the right point is reached the iron
teeth of the mill attack it and tear it up and salt it when in a _dry
state_, which is a great advantage. The make-room should be supplied
with a gang press and patent hoops, because one screw will compress a
dozen cheese and solidify them more firmly than old fashioned single
screws. A good cheese can be spoiled after it is in the hoop by
insufficient pressing.
I consider the latest milk handling devices almost as essential
in a modern factory or creamery as the practical knowledge of the
maker. Not merely for labor saving purposes should manufactories be
so supplied, but because the demands of present trade require dairy
products of a complexion difficult to attain without. It is a “penny
wise and pound foolish” policy to scantily furnish a butter or cheese
plant when thereby the loss on one under price sale would have more
than covered the deficiency in tools.