Cheese factory

“ The most abominable of all things in a cheese-factory is tainted milk. It means floating curds, "huffy" cheese, bad flavor and poor prices. Yet, as milk is now managed, most factories will, in hot weather, get occasionally caught with a mess of tainted milk. There are hard work, anxiety and unsatisfactory results in it for the cheese-maker, and dissatisfaction and small profits for the patron. Such things never ought to be; but, when such a catastrophe happens, like other disagreeable things, it has to be borne and the best made of it that circumstances will permit. ”

“ Another industry of even greater moment to the community at The Front is the cheese factory, which stands just past the corners and fronting the road, jagged up on the side of a steep embankment, and resting unsteadily upon crazy-looking standards. ”

“ A cheese factory needs good, improved utensils, just the same as a farm requires machinery of the latest patterns. It should have a boiler, because steam heating is cheaper, more under control and, consequently, safer for scalding than where fire under heating is employed. It should be furnished with a curd mill, because with one the maker has the acid almost completely under control. Without a mill, the whey must be retained until nearly enough acid has developed to meet the requisite gauge. ”

“ Unpretentious and surely uninviting is the cheese factory at The Front, but in local history, in the stories of the feuds waged between the clans of the farmers at The Front and those at The Gore, it plays a vitally important part, for through the lands of the latter flow the waters of the whey-tainted creek, endangering the products of their dairies by polluting the source of the cattle’s water supply. ”

“ In connexion with co-operative cheese-making the merit of having founded the first “cheesery” or cheese factory is generally credited to Jesse Williams, who lived near Rome, Oneida county, N.Y. The system, therefore, was of American origin. Williams was a skilled cheese-maker, and the produce of his dairy sold so freely, at prices over the average, that he increased his output of cheese by adding to his own supply of milk other quantities which he obtained from his neighbours. ”

“ In fact, a slight maturity of milk is necessary—or, at least, desirable—to produce a fine cheese, the same as mature cream is required to develop good butter, only in the former the “ripeness” must be scarcely perceptible, while in the latter it must be well advanced. All tainted milk, and all milk that is “old” and nearly sour, should be unconditionally rejected at the cheese factory for manufacture. Do not be afraid of financially losing by such a rule. It is none too stringent, and in the end it will give your goods a trade reputation that will be secure and impregnable. ”

“ The greatest difficulty is usually experienced in old factories, where the conveniences are not generally up to the more modern mark, and patrons fell into bad habits before experience had developed a better knowledge of the requirements of cheese-making. New patrons will submit to be trained, and a sensible cheese-maker, who knows what he wants, can generally get them to do almost anything at the opening of a new factory. In this way, he can discipline them and get them in the habit of taking good care of their milk. ”

“ The unwise extent to which men have gone in the erection of cheese factories, has increased competition to an extent decidedly prejudicial to the interest of the cheese-consuming world. A., having invested his entire capital in the construction and equipment of a factory, will be quite likely, when B., C., and D. erect factories in his immediate neighborhood, to hold his peace when sundry varieties of swill milk are offered at his door, instead of speaking out an equivocal protest against the insult thus offered to his professional pride and sense of decency. ”

“ Up to 1850 all the butter and cheese of the country was made on the farms, but after that year the cheese factory came into existence, with a consequent standardizing of the product and a very large increase of the business. ”

“ 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. ”

“ If all of the good endeavor to make mellow, rich cheese out of substance that is but dross was expended in divorcing the illegitimate union of creamery and cheese factory, incalculable benefit would accrue to dairy interetes. ”

“ Dairies associated together under factory regime facilitated such an easy and quick disposal of one's milk, and at such a greatly enhanced profit, that the obvious convenience and economy of the new order of things, more than any inimical characteristic it possessed, pulled down the one and set up the other. It matters not, though, to consumers in America or England, whether the cheese they eat is made under the roof of a farm house on a small scale, or in a mammoth factory on a large one, provided the quality is good. ”

“ In justification of this, it is argued that it keeps up [Pg 41] not only the reputation of the maker but the reputation of the factory, while it wrongs no one, since the patrons get all the cheese, or its equivalent in money, and all are served alike. We admit that the patrons get all the products of the milk, but let us see for a moment whether all are treated fairly. Every patron has a pound of milk deducted from each mess. Smith brings a hundred pound mess, and is therefore docked one hundredth part of it. Jones, with only one cow, delivers a ten pound mess, and is docked one-tenth of it. ”

“ May he his health retain aye.
The farmers can not be beat,
They have both cheese and their wheat,
Though now their greatest care is
For to watch o'er their dairies,
They carefully fill their mows
With provender for their cows,
And they thus enrich the soil
With much profit for their toil. [Pg 70]
We will sing this refrain aye,
Long life to Father Ranney.
The motto "union is strength"
Is carried out at length,
In the most compact array
At every cheese factory,
You'll see without going far as
There is one kept by Harris,
The factory of Ingersoll,
Just out at the first toll. ”

“ While advancing these suggestions, with much confidence in their practical value, I would by no means confine the outlook for Eastern farming to this single road to success. Co-operative industry may be largely adopted among farmers living at some distance from each other. The cheese-factory has become an institution. The better quality of the product when made in large quantities, and the better price that its quality [Pg 198] and the improved system for marketing have secured, constitute a very decided success in our agriculture. ”

“ Such an invention will greatly improve the quality and increase the consumption and price of American cheese. But, in the absence of anything better, the can set in a tub of water and the milk frequently stirred, would be a great improvement on starting for the factory with hot milk. If the water can be made to constantly run into the tub, fresh and cool, as the warm water runs out, so much the better. ”

“ Instead of a few homely and inconvenient implements for use in the laborious duties of the dairy, generally devolving upon the women of the farm, perfected appliances skillfully devised to accomplish their object and lighten labor are provided all along the way. The factory system of coöperative or concentrated manufacture has so far taken the place of home dairying, that in entire States the cheese vat or press is as rare as the hand-loom, and in many counties it is as hard to find a farm churn as a spinning-wheel. ”

“ This is a vast improvement over the pestilence breeding arrangement which is sunk in the ground, and is located near the butter and cheese rooms of most other factories. The right wing of the factory contains a driveway, a receiving-room, weighing platform, and stairway to office. The extension holds 150 tons of ice, and contains a refrigerator with a capacity of 30,000 pounds of butter. In the second story is a neat office, store-rooms, and curing room, to which the cheese are raised by an elevator. The lower floors are made of 2 × 6 joists, dressed and matched and imbedded in cement ”

“ Students making cheese in the University cheese factory, Madison, Wis.
Most of the following pages on Cheese were published in 1918 as a separate pamphlet to meet an urgent demand for brief directions along this line during the Food Conservation campaign. The copy has, however, been revised and new material has been added 87with the view of making this chapter more useful to those who desire to study in detail the manufacture of various fancy foreign types of cheese such as Edam, Swiss, Brick, Roquefort, etc., which are now made in this country in constantly increasing quantities. ”

“ There is no thought of having the milk moderately mature, the curd thoroughly cooked and then properly soured, and the salt judiciously applied. The amateur knows nothing about the fine yet necessary points of manufacture, and so his cheese lacks the fine but requisite points of quality to insure it trade recognition. We all like good cheese to eat, but in this country, thanks to the skimmer, it is getting so that the good article is very scarce and promises to be scarcer if the skimmer's relations with the factory are not soon done away with. ”

“ The dairy factory system was introduced into Canada in 1864, and from that time the production and exportation of cheese grew rapidly. Legislation was passed to protect Canadian dairy produce from dishonest manipulation, and soon Canadian cheese obtained a deservedly high reputation in the British markets. In 1891 cheese factories and creameries numbered 1733, and in 1899 there were 3649. In 1908 there were 4355 of these factories, of which 1284 were in Ontario, 2806 in Quebec, and 265 in the remaining seven provinces of Canada. Those in Ontario are the largest in size. ”

“ Cheeseries and creameries would almost certainly have become more numerous than they are in England but for the rapidly expanding urban trade in country milk. The development of each, indeed, has been contemporaneous since 1871, and they are found to work well in conjunction one with the other—that is to say, a factory is useful for converting surplus milk into cheese or butter when the milk trade is overstocked, whilst the trade affords a convenient avenue for the sale of milk whenever this may happen to be preferable to the making of cheese or butter. ”

“ A New York gentleman, who has recently returned from Liverpool, writes to a friend in this city and reports the situation healthy on the other side, but says New York State cheese are done for as far as fine cheese goes. It is the same old trouble we have mentioned time and again, too much cheese to the pound of milk—no body. Canada, and even New Zealand, are taking the trade of fine cheese from the States. Our factory men will wake up to the fact some day and find their goods are only second class. ”

“ Not only are these investigations of interest from the scientific standpoint, as throwing light on the obscure processes of cheese-curing, but from a practical point of view they open up a new field for commercial exploitation. The inability to control the temperature in the ordinary factory curing-room results in serious losses, on account of the poor and uneven quality of the product, and the consumption of cheese has been greatly lessened thereby. ”

“ Our American cheeses, since the introduction of the factory system, are exported in immense quantities to England, where{263} they are much sought for, and considered by epicures as great luxuries. This is generally astonishing to Americans abroad, who, at home, often consider it only in rule to offer guests cheese of foreign manufacture. ”

“ The factory system of making butter and cheese, an industry of great and growing commercial importance, and the history of which is full of interesting and useful lessons, has grown up in this country within the last quarter of a century from small beginnings. Prior to 1851 Herkimer and Oneida Counties, in central New York, had become somewhat famous for their cheese products, their dairies being then managed by individual owners with varying and somewhat uncertain success. ”

“ Pure cultures may be bought for a few shillings in the open market.
Table IX.—Comparison of the Estimates of Total or Original Manure-Value when Foods are
consumed for the Production of Fattening Increase, with those when the Food is consumed
by Cows giving different Yields of Milk. The factory-made cheese of Canada, the United States and Australasia, which is so largely imported into the United Kingdom, is all of the Cheddar type. The factory system has made no headway in the original home of the Cheddar cheese in the west of England. ”

“ After that time factories multiplied rapidly, until now practically all cheese is factory made. The demand for ready-made clothing for men was a generation ago very small. It grew out of a demand on the part of sailors, and was increased in large proportions at the time of the Civil War; [216] the manufacture of such articles is now so firmly established in our industrial system that a return to the home system of manufacturing, even in the most isolated and primitive communities, would be as impossible as the revival of the spinning wheel. ”