CHEESE MANUFACTURE.

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20266, 7 August 1937, Page 26 (Supplement)

CHEESE MANUFACTURE.

AMERICAN COMMEMORATION. A ceremony whloh will bo of Interest to cheese makers In other parts of the world took place reoently not far from Little Falls, New York State, where the first of the Hansen’s American factories w’as built (says the latest Hansen’s Dairy Bulletin). A strange party, dressed up In oldfashioned clothes, gathered outside the Town Hall in the small town of Rome, New York. Wagons drawn by oxen took the party a mile north of the town, while spectators by the hundred followed In more modern conveyances. The goal was a big veiled stone placed on the spot where the first American cheese factory -was built In 1857. The first speaker was Mr G. Mooney, of the National Cheese Institute, whose chief task is to increase the consumption of cheese In America. The memorial stone they were going to unveil, Mr Mooney said, was In commemoration of a peaoeful event, namely the birth of an industry. On this spot was the first dairy in whloh milk from a number of farms was turned Into cheese. Grandson of Founder. The stone itself was unveiled by a grandson of Mr Jesse Williams, the founder of the industry. Jesse Williams had been a true pioneer and he had made several inventions in connection with cheesemaking, but had refrained from patenting same in order to benefit the Industry to the fullest possible VllllllllllllillllllllllllUlllllllllllllllllllllllll

extent. He had also founded the New York State Cheese Makers’ Association. The stone bears a bronze relief showing Mr Jesse William’s first faotory and the following inscription:— “A dairy farmer of this community set up the first oheese factory in America. This pioneer step led to the Inauguration of the modern cheese factory system of this country. “Previous to that time oheese In America had been produced only as a home farm operation. Jesse Williams for the first lime In the history of American dairying converted! sweet milk from surrounding dairies Into cheese at a critical point. He Invented cheese-making machinery which he did not patent, but gave to posterity, aided In the erection of other factories and trained numerous cheese makers who carried the arts of cheesemaking throughout America. He organised the New York State Cheese Manufacturing Association.”