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HINTS ON CHEESE-MAKING.

CHAPTER I. BUILDING CHEESE-FACTORIES.

We frequently receive inquiries from parties who contemplate building cheese-factories, regarding certain details which none but those who have actual experience can readily carry out. For the benefit of all needing such information, we have taken pains to prepare the following:

Small or medium-sized factories now seem to be in order. People do not like to carry milk long distances, and this fact undoubtedly accounts for the tendency to small factories, conveniently located. We will give the size of a building suitable for a dairy of 300 to 500 cows. Let it be 80 by 26 feet, with 16 feet posts and two floors. From one end of the lower story take 24 feet for a make room, leaving the remainder for a curing room. Should more than one vat be used, the make room will need to be about six feet larger one way. It may be made so by taking the space off from the curing room, or by putting a projection on the side. The upper story will be used for curing, but should be partitioned off the same as the lower story. The room over the make room should be lathed and plastered, and provided with heating apparatus, so as to make a suitable place for curing early and late made cheese. The building may be cheap, or as expensive as desired.

Either setters and ranges, or the old style tables, may be used. The latter, since small-sized cheeses have come in fashion, are the more common. They are quite as cheap and convenient, and by using them, factorymen avoid the annoyance consequent upon the pretended patent right which is claimed on the rails and turners.

We shall not recommend any particular style of vat, since by doing so we should seem to condemn others. But we will mention the fact that for small factories, vats with self-heaters are preferable and the more economical. A self-heater can be set up and run anywhere, with a piece of stove-pipe to conduct off the smoke, and the expense of boilers, mason-work, etc., is avoided. Five or six cords of maple stove-wood, split fine and well seasoned, will run a good self-heater through the season.

The appearance of a dairy depends very much on the trueness, as well as uniformity in hight, of the cheeses. Good presses and hoops are therefore essential, and save a great deal of trouble as well as give a great deal of satisfaction. The press, therefore, needs to be made heavy and strong, so as not to spring or warp. Let the sill be 14 by 4 inches; the beam, 10 by 6 inches; posts, 4 by 14 inches, slanted from the sill upward to 10, the width of the beam. The sill and beam should be boxed into the posts three-fourths of an inch, and the posts should extend above the beam some 4 inches or more. The top of the sill should stand about 2 feet from the floor. The space between the sill and beam should be 2 feet 4 inches. The lateral space allowed for each hoop should be 2 feet; and in each space between the hoops the sill and beam should be held in place by seven-eighths inch rods of iron. In the first space from either end, a single rod is sufficient; the next should have two rods, and so on, alternately. The single rod should extend through the middle of the sill and beam, and have heavy washers attached to each end, to prevent the head or nut from settling into the wood. The double rods should go through the edges of the beam and sill, and through heavy washers of iron on the bottom of the sill, and through strong straps extending across the top of the beam. The presses should be made for pressing four or six cheeses, and be made of hard, seasoned timber. The screws should be 1¾ inch. Of the various kinds of screws introduced, we know of none better than the old-fashioned ones, with holes through them to receive the bar.

The curd-sink is an important thing in a factory. Its construction is always a matter of considerable speculation and perplexity. We will give dimensions for one suitable for a factory of the size we have indicated. It should be 16 feet long, 2 feet 10 inches in width inside, and 1 foot deep. The bottom should be 1½ inch thick, and the sides 1 inch thick. The legs should be 3 feet high, extending up the sides, so that the top of the sink will be 3 feet from the floor. The sink should be made of clear, seasoned pine, and the legs be well braced, with cross and side pieces connecting them about 6 inches from the floor. Backs and a cloth strainer may be used, or a false bottom with perforated tin strainers may be substituted.

The proper hight of the weighing can, of the dumping window from the ground, and the best apparatus for unloading, are generally matters quite perplexing. The proper hight of the receiving can is that which gives a gentle slope to the conductor, as too much current not only causes the milk to slop over the sides of the strainer, but drives the dirt through the strainer. With vats 3 feet 2 inches high, the platform for the scales should be 3 feet 8 inches from the floor.

Of the many appliances used for unloading, none is simpler, cheaper or more satisfactory than the crane. Make it of scantling 4 by 4 inches, the upright 8 feet long, and the arm 7 feet. Hang it as you would a barn-door. Fasten one end of a strong half or three-quarter inch rope to the end of the arm; run it through a pully to which is attached the tongs; then over a 4 inch pully above, near the end of the arm; run it back over a similar pully next to the upright, then down to a 3 inch roller, with a crank, at a convenient hight for turning. One end of the crank must be sustained by a strong iron strap, bowing outward, in the direction of the arm, to admit the roller (about 6 inches long) lengthwise, and fastened to the upright above and below.

The window-sill should be not more than two or three inches above the edge of the receiving-can, which should stand close to the window, just clearing the sill. The road should be eighteen inches below the platform on which stand the scales and weighing can. Then the can, when raised just enough to clear the wagon-box and wheels, will be of the right hight for dumping when swung round to the window. Many make the mistake of getting the road too low, which causes the unnecessary work of raising the milk 3 or 4 feet by hand before it can be dumped, and wastes strength and time, both in raising the can and lowering it back again into the wagon after it is emptied.

In building a factory, every provision should be made for cleanliness. It should be located near a living spring of water, ranging in temperature somewhere between 45° and 55°. There should be sufficient water to fill, at all times, an inch pipe, and care should be taken to secure a fair head—enough to carry the water above the vats, at least. The water should be carried in pipes under the building, along by the ends of the vats where it is wanted, with penstocks rising from the pipe, to furnish