The Cattle Disease Near Effingham.
Saturday, March 15, I visited the herds of Messrs. Du Brouck, Schooley and Fannce northeast of Effingham, Illinois, and carefully examined them with Mr. F. F. Hunt, of the university, as they were reported affected with foot-and-mouth disease. In each herd diseased cattle were found; about 20 distinctly marked cases, a few others having symptoms. The disease is unlike anything I have known, but does not resemble foot-and-mouth disease as described by any authority. Only the hind feet are affected, and these without ulceration. In most cases "scouring" was first noticed, followed by swelling above the hoofs. In the most severe cases, the skin cracked about the pastern joint or at the coronet. In four cases one foot had come off. Swelling of pastern and "scouring" were the only symptoms in several cases. The mouth and udders were healthful; appetites good. In one case there was slight vesicle on nostril and slight inflammation of gum. Some animals in contact with diseased ones for weeks remained healthful. Others were attacked after five weeks' isolation. The most marked cases were of eight to ten weeks standing. But one animal had died.
What we saw is not foot and mouth disease as known abroad, nor is the contagious character of the disease proven from the cases in these herds.
G. E. Morrow,
University, Champaign, Ill.
Camembert Cheese.
The Camembert is one of the variety of French cheeses that find ready sale in England at high prices. Mr. Jenkins describes the process of making this cheese in a late number of the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England which information we find condensed in the Dublin Farmer's Gazette:
The cows are milked three times a day, at 4.30 and 11.30 a. m., and at 6 p. m. In most dairies the evening's milk is highly skimmed in the morning, butter being made from the cream, and the milk divided into two portions one of which is added to the morning's and the other to the midday's milking. The mixture is immediately put into earthen[m] vessels holding twelve to fifteen gallons each, and after it has been raised to the temperature of about 86 deg. Fahr., a sufficient quantity of rennet is added to make the curd fit to be transferred to the cheese moulds in three or four hours, or, perhaps, a longer interval in winter. The mixture of the rennet with the milk is insured by gentle stirring, and the pots are then covered with a square board. The curd is ready for removal when it does not adhere to the back of the finger placed gently upon it, and when the liquid that runs from the fingers is as nearly as possible colorless. The curd is transferred, without breaking it more than can be avoided, to perforated moulds four inches in diameter. The moulds are placed on reed mats resting on slightly inclined slabs, made of slate, cement, or other hard material, and having a gutter near the outer edge. The curd remains in the moulds twenty-four or even forty-eight hours, according to the season, being turned upside down after twelve or twenty-four hours; that is, when sufficiently drained at the bottom. After turning the face of the cheese, the inside of[n] the mould is sprinkled with salt, and twelve hours afterward the opposite face and the rim of the cheeses are treated in the same way. The cheeses are then placed on movable shelves round the walls of the dairy for a day or two, after which the curing process commences by the cheeses being transferred to the "drying-room," and there placed on shelves made of narrow strips of wood with narrow intervals between them, or of ordinary planks with reed mats or clean rye straw. Here the greatest ingenuity is exerted to secure as dry an atmosphere and as equable a temperature as possible—the windows being numerous and small, and fitted with glass, to exclude air, but not light, when the glass is shut, with a wooden shutter to exclude both light and air; and with wire gauze to admit light and air, and exclude flies and winged insects, which are troublesome to the makers of soft cheese.
The cheeses are turned at first once a day, and afterward every second day, unless in damp weather, when daily turning is absolutely necessary. In three or four days after the cheeses are placed in the drying-room they become speckled; in another week they are covered with a thick crop of white mold, which by degrees deepens to a dark yellow, the outside of the cheese becoming less and less sticky. At the end of about a month, when the cheese no longer sticks to the fingers, it is taken to the finishing room, where light is nearly excluded, and the atmosphere is kept very still and slightly damp. Here they remain three or four weeks, being turned every day or every second day, according to the season, and carefully examined periodically. When ready for market—that is to say, in winter, when ripe, and in summer, when half ripe—they are made up in packets of six, by means of straw and paper, with great skill and neatness.