This little work on cheese manufacture is inscribed to makers, dealers and consumers, in the hope that its careful perusal may be of aid to one and all. The prestige that American cheese holds in the markets of the world has been threatened from many quarters, but we who inaugurated the Cheddar system on this side of the Atlantic are not prepared to succumb to competition, however sharp, or to prejudice, however strong. American cheese will hold its own as long as it has a square quality basis to stand upon. We possess the most natural and privileged dairy regions on earth. Let us utilize to their fullest extent the great advantages within our grasp. Dairymen have of late been struck with consternation by the ascendency of Canadian cheese over the States’ product. The dairy press have been pounding away at the gruesome situation so vigorously that many cheese men have been frightened into the belief that Canada has a corner on gilt-edged quality and fancy quotations that is liable to continue indefinitely. The writer has no such apprehension, however, and sees no reason why an American cheese should not always be a peer of the best. There has been unanimous action all over the dairy portions of the Dominion to effect the slight advantage they now hold. If, in a strenuous endeavor to improve the product, our friends across the border have succeeded and at the same time have stimulated us to a like movement, then thanks be to them. Legitimate competition aids all mankind.
As the caption indicates, this treatise is from the pen of a practical maker, who analyzes cheese manufacture from a standpoint of practice and experience, and not theory. In elucidating to my readers the fundamental and collateral fabric of milk manufacture, I write from the desk of a cheese factory, with milk, utensils and product under my immediate and daily supervision. In these pages, I shall discard everything theoretic, and base the whole value of the book on its practicability. In doing so my constant thought shall be the elevation and supremacy of American cheese to the highest standard attainable. To this manual I especially invite the criticism of the cheese profession in general, trusting that it may be a convenient book of reliable reference to the experienced and a work of utility to the novice.
GEO. E. NEWELL.
Leonardsville, N. Y.
THE FACTORY BUILDING AND SITE.
The site for a cheese factory should be a well-drained, slightly elevated location, convenient to a copious and perpetual flow of water. The size of the building is, of course, to be measured by the amount of milk to be manufactured therein, but the same internal arrangement is needed alike in both small and large factories. The building should rest on a substantial stone foundation, with a free circulation of air underneath, and a complete system of troughs be appendent to carry all slops and whey beyond contaminating distance. It is unnecessary that the building be more than a story and a half high, unless the upper apartment is required for something besides curing cheese. The make-room should be ceiled, and the curing-room plastered. The make-room should be in the front of the building, with the engine-room on one side of it and the milk delivery window on the other. The curing-room should be in the back. Cut off all superfluous space about the building and have just enough room to be nicely convenient. Put an awning roof over the delivery window, wide and long enough to cover wagon and team. Set the vats broadside to the milk scales, with ends towards the outer door. The platform for the weighing-can and scales should be on a level with the top of the vats. A small office desk should be hung to the wall near the weigh can, and close at hand, so that every patron can see them, should be arranged the cream tubes, and lactometer. Tin utensils can be hung on pegs in the wall, and a stout, low shelf in one corner will support rennet and annottoine jars. Have the aisle between the vats wide enough to permit of easy passage, and at the farther ends of the vats sink a trough into the floor to carry off the whey. Have similar troughs under the presses. The floor should be full enough in the center to gravitate all slop toward the drains. It is useless to have a factory floor wet all of the time; keep it dry by a system of neatness. The curing-room should have an outside door, from which cheese can be loaded. An adjoining lean-to shed, for storing empty cheese boxes and housing fuel, is also a needed addition to the building. For a one day milk delivery factory, no ice-house is required. Build substantially and paint neatly, aiming to have a model-looking factory.