MAKING AND PRESERVATION OF CHEESE.

cial curd, or rather butter, of new cream, of sufficient quantity to fill the bag. Add three new laid eggs well beaten, one nutmeg grated fine, or any other good spice; mix them well together, with three teacups full of fine salt; fill the rennet-bag with this substance, tie up the mouth, lay it under a strong brine for three days, turning it over daily. Then hang it up in a cool and dry place for six weeks, and it will be fit for use. When it is used, take with a spoon out of the bag a sufficient quantity of this artificial butyrous curd for the cheese you propose to make, dissolve it in a small quantity of warm water, and then use it in the same manner 'as other rennet is, mixed with the milk for its coagulation."

In the Bath papers, Mr. Hazard gives the following recipe for making rennet : "When the raw skin is well prepared and fit for the purpose, three pints of soft water, clean and sweet, should be mixed with salt, wherein should be put sweet briar, rose leaves and flowers, cinnamon, mace, cloves, and almost every sort of spice; and if these are put into two quarts of water, they must boil gently, till the liquor is reduced to three pints, and care should be taken that this liquor is not smoked. It should be strained clear from the spices, &c. and when found to be not warmer than milk from the cow, it should be poured upon the cawl or maw; a lemon might be sliced into it, where it may remain a day or two; after which it should be strained again and put into a bottle, where if well corked, it will keep good for twelve months. It will smell like a perfume, and a small quantity of it will turn the milk, and give the cheese a pleasing flavor.' He adds, "If the maw be salted and dried for a week or two near the fire, it will do for the purpose again, almost as well as before."

Another recipe is as follows: after the maw has been well cleansed, and salted, and dried upon sticks or splints, take boiled water, two quarts, made into a brine that will bear an egg. Let it be blood warm, and put in the maw either cut or whole: let it steep twenty-four hours, and it will be fit for use. About a tea-cup full will turn the milk of ten cows. It should be kept in glass bottles well corked.

The Massachusetts Agricultural Repository gives still another recipe for making rennet, which is as follows. The rennet is prepared by taking some whey and salting it till it will bear an egg; it is then suffered to stand over night, and in the morning it is skimmed and racked off clear; to this is added an equal quantity of water brine, strong as the whey, and into this mixture, some sweet brier, thyme, or other sweet herbs, also a little black pepper and salt petre; the herbs are kept in the brine three or four days, after which it is decanted clear from them. Into six quarts of this liquor four large calves' bags, or more properly called calves' stomachs are put. No part of the preparation is heated, and frequently the calves' bags are only steeped in cold salt and water.

But whatever kind of rennet the dairy-woman may choose to prepare, it should be remembered, that this animal acid is extremely apt to become rancid and putrescent, and that great care is necessary to apply a sufficient quantity of salt to preserve it in its best state. The rank and disagreeable taste too frequently found, is often caused by the rennets having been badly preserved.

In respect to the process of making cheese, the Massachusetts Agricultural Repository gives the following directions.

The milk is universally set for cheese as soon as it comes from the

MAKING AND PRESERVATION OF CHEESE.

cow. The management of the curd depends on the kind of cheese; thin cheese requires the least labor and attention.

Breaking the curd is done with the hand and dish. The finer the curd is broken the better, particularly in thick cheeses. The best color of this kind of cheese is that of beeswax, which is produced by annotta, rubbed into the milk after it is warmed. The dairy-woman is to judge of the quality by the color of the milk, as it differs much in strength. Turning the milk differs in different dairies; no two dairy-women conduct exactly alike.

Setting the milk too hot inclines the cheese to heave, and cooling it with cold water produces a similar effect. The degree of heat varies according to the weather. The curd, when formed, is broken with what is called a tripple cheese knife. The use of this is to keep the fat in the cheese; it is drawn the depth of the curd two or three times across the tub, to give the whey an opportunity of running off clear; after a few minutes, the knife is more freely used, and the curd is cut into small pieces like chequers, and is broken fine in the whey with the hand and a wooden dish. The curd being allowed about half an hour to settle, the whey is laded off with the dish, after it is pretty well separated from the curd.

It is almost an invariable practice to scald the curd. The mass is first broken very fine, and then the scalding whey is added to it, and stirred a few minutes; some make use of hot water in preference to whey, and in both cases heated according to the nature of the curd; if it is soft, the whey or water is used nearly boiling; but if hard, it is only used a little hotter than the hand. After the curd is thoroughly mixed with the hot stuff, it is suffered to stand a few minutes to settle, and is then separated, as at the first operation. After the scalding liquor is separated, a vat, or what is often called a cheese hoop, is laid across the cheese ladder over the tub, and the curd is crumbled into it with the hands, and pressed into the vat, to squeeze out the whey. The vat being filled as full and as firmly as the hand alone can fill it, and rounded up in the middle, a cheese cloth is spread over it, and the curd is turned out of the hoop into the cloth; the vat is then washed, and the inverted mass of curd with the cloth under it, is returned into the vat and put into the press; after standing two or three hours in the press, the vat is taken out, and the cloth is taken off, washed, and put round the cheese and replaced in the vat and in the press. In about seven or eight hours it is taken out of the press and salted, the cheese is placed on a board, and a handful of salt rubbed all over it, and the edges are pared off if necessary; another handful of salt is strewed on the upper side, and as much left as will stick to it; afterwards, it is turned into the bare vat without a cloth, and an equal quantity of salt is added to it, and the cheese is returned into the press. Here it continues one night; and the next morning it is turned in the vat, and continues till the succeeding morning, and the curd is taken out and placed on the dairy shelf; here they are turned every day, or every other day, as the weather may be. If it is hot and dry, the windows and door are kept shut; but, if wet or moist, the door and windows are kept open night and day.

Cleaning the Cheese.-The cheeses having remained about ten days after leaving the press, are to be washed and scraped in the following manner; a large tub of cold sweet whey is placed on the floor, the

HISTORY OF THE HORSE.

cheeses are immersed in it, where they continue one hour, or longer, if necessary to soften the rind. They are then taken out and scraped with a common case knife, with great care, so as not to injure the tender rind, till every part of the cheese is smooth; they are after the last operation rinsed in the whey and wiped clean, with a coarse cloth, and placed in an airy situation to dry, after which they are placed in the cheese room.

The floor of the cheese room is generally prepared by rubbing it with bean or potatoe tops, or any succulent herb, till it appears of a black wet color; on this floor the cheeses are placed, and turned twice a week, their edges are wiped hard with a cloth once a week, and the floor is cleansed and rubbed with fresh herbs once a fortnight. They must not lie too long or they will stick to the floor. This preparation of the floor gives the cheese a blue coat, which is considered of great consequence.

Skippers in Cheese.—Wrap the cheese in thin brown paper, so thin the moisture may strike through soon-dig a hole in good sweet earth about two feet deep, in which the cheese must be buried about 36 hours, and the skippers will be found all on the outside of the cheese; brush them off immediately, and you will find your cheese sound and good.

To prevent Cheese having a rancid nauseous flavor.-Put about one table-spoonful of salt to each gallon of milk, when taken from the cows in the evening, for the cheese to be made the next day : put the salt at the bottom of the vessel that is to receive the milk; it will increase the curd, and prevent the milk from growing sour or putrid the hottest nights in the summer.

SECTION III.

ON THE BREEDING, REARING, AND MANAGEMENT OF HORSES.

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE HORSE.

Although the native country of the horse cannot with certainty be traced, it seems probable that he was first domesticated in Egypt, but the precise period it is difficult to settle. 1920 years before the birth of Christ, when Abraham, having left Haran, in obedience to the divine command, was driven into Egypt by the famine, which raged in Canaan, (Gen. xii. 16.) Pharaoh offered him sheep and oxen, and asses and camels. Horses would doubtless have been added, had they then existed, or had they been subdued in Egypt.

When fifty years afterwards, Abraham journied to Mount Moriah, to offer up his only son, he rode upon an ass; which, with all his wealth and power, he would scarcely have done had the horse been known.. Gen. xxii. 3.

Thirty years later, when Jacob returned to Isaac with Rachael and Leah, an account is given, Gen. xxii. 14. of the number of oxen, sheep, camels, goats, and asses, which he sent to appease the anger of Esau, but not one horse is mentioned.

DIFFERENT BREEDS OF HORSES.

It was not until twenty-four years after this, when the famine devastated Canaan, and Jacob sent into Egypt to buy corn, that horses are first heard of. "Waggons," probably carriages drawn by horses, were sent by Joseph into Canaan to bring his father to Egypt. It would seem, however, that horses had been but lately introduced, or not used as beasts of burden; for the whole of the corn, which was to be conveyed some hundred miles, and was to afford sustenance for Jacob's large household, was carried on asses. Gen. xiv. 19.

About the year 1740, before Christ, is the period when horses appear to have been used first in Egypt. They appear, however, to have rapidly increased and spread abroad; for when the Israelites returned into Canaan, the Canaanites went out to fight against Israel with chariots and horsemen very many.

The sacred volume seems therefore to decide the important point, that the first domestication of the horse was in Egypt. Another point also, it decides, that Arabia by whose breed of horses those of other countries have been so much improved, was not the native place of the horse. 600 years after the time just referred to, Arabia had no horses. Solomon imported silver, gold, and spices from Arabia, 2 Chron. ix. 14, but all the horses for his own cavalry and chariots he procured from Egypt. 2 Chron. i. 17. In this place, it is mentioned that a horse brought from Egypt cost 150 shekels of silver, which at two shillings threepence, and one half farthing each, amount to about £17,2s. sterling, an enormous price for those days.

The horses of Arabia itself, and of the southeastern parts of Europe are clearly derived from Egypt; but whether they were there bred or imported from the southwestern regions of Asia, or, as is more probable, brought from the interior or northern coasts of Africa, cannot with certainty be determined.

DIFFERENT BREEDS OF HORSES.

It has been stated in the preceding section, that the earliest records of the horse trace him to Egypt, as the country where he was domesticated; but as it is probable that he was derived from the neighbouring and interior districts of Africa, in giving an account of the most celebrated and useful breeds of different countries, it is natural to begin with those of Africa.

BARB. At the head of the African breeds, and, perhaps, at the head of all other breeds, may be placed the Barb from Barbary, and particularly from Morocco and Fez, an animal remarkable for its fine and graceful action. It is rather lower than the Arabian, seldom exceeding fourteen hands and an inch. The shoulders are flat, the chest round, the joints inclined to be long, and the head particularly beautiful. The Barb is decidedly superior to the Arab in form, but has not his spirit, or speed or countenance.

The Barb has chiefly contributed to the excellence of the Spanish horse; and, when the improvement of the breed of horses began to be systematically pursued in Great Britain, the Barb was very early introduced. The Godolphin Arabian, as he is called, of whom we here pre

DIFFERENT BREEDS OF HORSES.

sent our readers with a cut, and who was the origin of some of the best English racing blood, was a Barb; and others of their most celebrated turf-horses, trace their descent from African mares.

As to the manner in which the above horse was introduced into England, different accounts have been given. According to one writer,* his introduction was by means of a Col. Coke, an Englishman of fortune and education, who on account of several crimes was obliged to flee from England, and during his absence, travelled into Syria, and thence into Arabia.

In this latter country, he accidentally heard of the above horse, which it was stated, belonged to a certain "Sheik." He visited the Sheik, but was unable to purchase him, on account of the great value put upon him. He contrived, however, to steal him-made his escape-reached Damietta, a seaport near the mouth of the Nile, whence he sailed with the horse, and took up his residence in France, until he could appear in England, and be restored to his family.

The Earl of Godolphin was, at this time, prime minister of England. To him Coke addressed several letters, but his Lordship paid no attention to them.-At length, by some means, Coke discovered that his Lordship at that season of the year, was afflicted with the gout; and daily took an airing in his carriage in Hyde Park, London-he wrote to his Lordship, that at a particular time, and place, in said Park, he would see a man. (describing his stature and dress, riding a beautiful brown horse, which he also described, having his off heel behind white,) who had no designs whatever on his person, but on the contrary a great friendship for him, who wished to have an interview with him, and that when his Lordship in his next ride saw him, he the said Coke, would take it as a particular favor, if his Lordship would direct his outriders to withdraw, so that the interview as aforesaid might be effected.

# American Farmer, vol. 9. p. 134.