The Ely Miner

FARM DAIRY CHEESE.
Department of Agriculture Is Trying to Develop Its Manufacture on Larger Scale.

There is a popular impression that the manufacture of cheese in this country has been so completely transferred to the factory system during the last half century, as practically to abolish cheese-making on dairy farms. But the agricultural returns of the twelfth United States census show that in the year 1899 there were still 15,670 farms upon which dairy cheese was made. The quantity produced on these farms during that year was 16,372,330 pounds, an average of 1,045 pounds per farm. This product constituted almost five and one-half per cent. of all the cheese made in the United States.

It is the purpose of farmers' bulletin No. 166, "Cheese Making on the Farm," to furnish for the farm household a brief description of the most approved methods used in the manufacture of several varieties of cheese. Details of management, which are briefly and plainly described, include aeration and cooling, coloring, the use of rennet, curdling, cutting, cooking, molding, pressing, dressing, salting and curing. The operation of pressing is explained as follows: The press may be a simple lever and weight, described as follows: The lever should be about 12 feet long. A broken wagon tongue answers the purpose very well. Set a strong box on which the mold may be placed, about three feet from a wall, post or tree. On the latter nail a slat and under it put one end of the lever. Put a circular board about six inches in diameter upon the mold, and on this rest the stick or lever. A pail containing a few cobblestones will answer for the weight. Do not apply full pressure at first, but let the weight hang about half-way between the mold and the outer end of the stick. Let the cheese remain a few hours in the press, then take out and dress.

[FARM DAIRY CHEESE PRESS.]

The ordinary process by which our American cheese is made in factories is not applicable to the farm dairy, because it takes too much time and is so complicated that it requires years of practice to become familiar with the varying conditions in which milk comes to the vat. The various changes that take place in milk, and which are troublesome in making cheese, nearly all develop in the night's milk, kept over until the following morning. So, if milk is made into cheese immediately after it is drawn, no difficulty need be experienced. By employing a simple and short method of manufacture, anyone at all accustomed to handling milk can, with the appliances found in any well-regulated farmhouse, make uniformly a good cheese.