PROFESSOR SHELDON ON DAIRY FARMING.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2697, 29 November 1882, Page 3

PROFESSOR SHELDON ON DAIRY FARMING.

Recently Professor Sheldon delivered a lecture on dairy farming at Stranraer. He said it appeared to him that dairy farming would become of more importance in the future than it had been in the past, because milk aud fresh butter they could not get from abroad; and they still have to depend on their farmers for this food. It was the question of cheese making he was requested to bring more particularly under their notice that day. With regard to the conditions necessary to the success of dairyfarming, the first was suitable land. The best for cheese making was that of a sound soil, loamy, and which did not require much artificial manuring. This description of land was more particularly found in Somersetshire. Another important matter in the production of cheese was the cattle they used for that purpose. Taking them over all, there were none equal to the Ayrshire cattle, which yielded a heavier profit in the way of milk than any other other cattle for the quantity of food they consumed. They seemed to put to better purposes the food they ate. He was glad to find that the Cheddar system was adopted in this county, as it was the best; even in foreign countries it was the best, making allowance for the difference in soil and climate. A main feature in the success in dairy farming was having cattle which yield the maximum quantity of milk.- Proceeding to speak of the treatment of milk in cheese-making, a matter of the first importance was cleanliness. Milk, they saw, was a very peculiar thing, not being intended by nature to be exposed to the air at all. It was liable easily to decay, being an article of food specially provided by nature for the sustenance of the young. They wanted a temperature that was pure and cool. Having referred to the differrent kinds of cheese made, which he said suited certain districts, he was of opinion it could not be transplanted from one district to another. It was very odd that they should have so much to learn about cheese-making, and the fact that so many cheese were not made perfect was a proof that they had a good deal yet to learn in this matter, and that there was something wrong. He next spoke of the acidity of the curd, and the proper degree of heating; he condemned the practice of breaking down the curd too quickly, which he said required very delicate usage, in order that there might not bo waste. Under the Cheddar system they were very careful to break it down gently for awhile at the first. For this purpose large vats with double bottoms should be used. With regard to the ripening of the cheese, the temperature was vai-iable, and nothing could be ripened unless it had a uffloient degree of warmth. It was generally found that the cheese made at this season took longer to ripen than that made in the summer time. There was a reason for that, and he instanced a case he had soon in America where the farmer took the morning and evening milk and heated them up to 80 or 90 degrees, letting them stand at that temperature for three or four hours before putting the rennet in ; and standing at that temperature the milk ripened. The lecturer then referred to butter-making. There had been a reformation in the making of butter, and he cited as a great improvement the centrifugal cream separator. The washing of butter was of groat importance, <md one of the best ways was to wash it in the churn. In Germany butter was never touched by the human hand. He summed up the results of his address as faults in dairy farming, want of cleanliness, poor accommodation, having an improper aspect for dairy—it should not face to the south, but always to the north : inferior ventilation, neglected temperature, irregularity in work, as many of the dairymaids would leave their cheese-making to go to other household work.