The cheese is next taken to the magazine, where each cheese is placed on a shelf.
The sides of the cheese are painted with a mixture of litmus, otherwise called tournesol, and oil, to give them the purple colour. The tournesol is a plant collected in the south of France.
The cheeses are set on the shelf in the same order in which they were made; and the cheeses of each month are placed together.
Those of the month of October and of May are the best, and bear the highest price. The best cheeses can be kept longest, and are improved by keeping for some years.
There was an October cheese which had been kept five years, and was to be sent to the emperor.
After the great cheese is made, the liquid in the copper is again heated over the fire, and curd is collected from it to make small cheeses, called Mascarla.
The number of cows kept for making cheese in this dairy is eighty.—They are always in the house in winter, and at the present season of the year. They are fed upon grass all the year, except perhaps in December. The house in which they are kept is not above nine feet high to the ceiling. They are not kept very clean. In summer, they go out to the field to feed during the day.
The cows are of a dark colour, and are brought from Switzerland, which is found more profitable than rearing them in this country. The bull is also Swiss, and fourteen months old.
It is estimated that 2000 head of cattle pass the Mount St. Gothard every year coming from Switzerland into Italy. Considerable fairs for the sale of Swiss cattle are held at Lugano.
The evening's milk is put in flat copper vessels, three feet in diameter, in order to collect the cream.