Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

BUTTER AND CHEESE MAKING. 139 to bear upon it is increased each day, till it finally reaches about half a ton. In four or five days the cheese is turned out. From the presses the cheese is taken to a lift and carried to a store-room above, where it is laid out on the floor upon a bed of straw. In about a week from the time the making begins, the cheese is sometimes in the hands of the consumers. The factor visits a farm, and thrusting his tester into the various cheeses, decides on their fitness for the markets. If the surface is rough, it is ripe and good ; if, however, it presents a smooth appearance, like a piece of yellow soap, it is too fresh, and must be kept a little longer, the work of ripening not having been sufficiently well done. It depends entirely on the application of acidity as to how long it must or may be kept. But let us return for a moment to the whey. It passes through a pipe from the vat to a slate-lined tank in the floor of the adjoining chamber. The virtue in it is converted into butter, and the residue or waste is pumped, by means of steam power, a considerable distance to the piggery, where it forms a delectable item of diet for the porcine population. It requires very careful handling to produce good butter from whey, and only the experienced and most skilful of dairy folk are entrusted with the work. The cheese which is easiest of digestion is that which is old, dry, and crumbling, but it is not by any means a marketable article. The most difficult to digest is that which is new and “close.” Green in Cheshire cheese is not desirable, although it is in Gorgonzola and Stilton. In the case of the last-named the rotting is encouraged o o by means of acidity, and by thrusting into it brass and copper skewers. In the makino of it the curd is not broken up ; nor, of course, is any colouring used. There are large cheeses made without colouring, but farmers prefer making the other Photo: Cassell &• Co., Ltd. CORNER IN STORE-ROOM. A FACTOR TESTING CHEESE. Photo: Cassell & Co., Ltd. THE CHEESE IN THE PRESSES. kind, for the sufficient reason that they are more marketable. It is estimated that from 130,00010 140,000 tons of cheese are made in the British Isles in a year, and 105,000 tons of butter. The imports amount to over 126,000 tons a year. 1 he yearly imports of butter and margarine are more than 200,000 tons. The busiest month for cheese making is May. A great deal of butter is made in the south-west of England, and also in Ireland. At Cappamore, in Ireland, it is not at all unusual for as many as a hundred farmers to send their milk to one dairy, and it is a pretty sight to see the milk being brought in. The carts, drawn by donkeys, are driven by peasant boys and girls, often without shoes or stockings. The pro- cession of carts is some- times a mile long. The milk is delivered at one side of the dairy and then weighed, and the cart goes round to the other side to take away separated or skimmed milk, which is used for feeding calves. H. L. Adam.