I was so much pleased with my visit to the creamery, that Uncle Ben promised to show me how cheese is made. So one morning just after breakfast he, Cousin Frank, and I started out. After a pleasant ride of about five miles we reached the factory.

The first process here was the same as that at the creamery. After the milk was weighed it was run into great zinc-lined vats. There were four of these in the factory, each of which held about five thousand pounds.

Uncle Ben explained that the milk must curdle before cheese can be made. In order to make it curdle quickly, a little less than a pound of a substance called rennet was put into each vat.

A man worked at each vat with a long wooden rake, stirring the milk constantly. I saw a glass tube standing in the milk and asked what it was. Uncle Ben told me to look at it closely. I saw that it was a thermometer, and that it registered eighty degrees. A little while after I looked again, when it showed a temperature of ninety degrees. The milk is kept warm, so as to help it to curdle quickly.

In about an hour I could see the curd very plainly, but the men kept on stirring and cutting it. Presently one of them carried a piece of the curd to a table. He heated a small iron rod and touched it with the curd. When he pulled the curd away, little threads were drawn out to the length of half an inch or more. This he called the "acid test," which showed that the curd was in the right condition to be made into cheese.

Of course only a part of the milk had turned into curd; the rest was whey, that was drawn off and run into tanks. Each man who had delivered one hundred pounds of milk was given a check for seventy-five pounds of the whey. It is fed to hogs. About two hours from the time that the milk was put into the vats, the whey was drawn off.One of the men now took a long knife and cut the curd into oblong cakes. These he frequently lifted and turned over. After continuing this for about twenty minutes, the pieces of curd were put into a small mill, placed on a board over the vat, and the curd was chopped into strips from one to six inches long and from one-half an inch to an inch thick. Salt was scattered over the mass by one man, while another pitched it about with a three-pronged wooden fork. The man told me that he used three pounds of salt to each thousand pounds of milk.

Next, a piece of cloth was placed on a board about sixteen inches square. Two circular metal frames or bands, about six inches high, were fitted one within the other and placed on the cloth. The frame was filled with curd, covered by a cloth, and another set placed on top of it until there were five. They were then put on a table directly under a block which was fastened to a screw. By turning the screw the block was pressed against the top board, and so each frame of curd was pressed. I saw the whey running out as the squeezing went on. The superintendent told us that the curd would be left in the press until the next day.

We were then taken into the room where the cheese "ripens." Here we saw large racks reaching nearly to the ceiling, filled with double rows of cheeses. The smallest ones weighed but three pounds, while the largest weighed fifty pounds. It may take but a few days and it may take many months to "ripen" a cheese. It depends upon the flavor wanted. The man said that in England "strong" cheese is generally liked, while in our country "mild" cheese is preferred.

I asked how much cheese five thousand pounds of milk would make, and was told that it would make between four and five hundred pounds.

On the way home Uncle Ben told us that although our country is a great dairy country, we import certain kinds of cheese from Europe. He told us how the Swiss people pasture their cattle on the steep mountain sides, and that in every little mountain valley cheese is made, some of which finds its way over the mountains and across the sea to the United States.