About the year 1853, a gentleman residing near Rome, Oneida county,
N. Y., Jesse Williams by name, conceived the idea of manufacturing
his neighbors’ milk in common with his own. This is the first known
instance of manufacture in this country by associated dairies,
although the method was previously in vogue in Switzerland. I quote
from an old report: “It required a long time to create the demand
which now exists in England for American cheese, and to Herkimer
county, New York, belongs the credit of creating it and securing the
trade. It was mainly effected by bringing a high degree of skill to
bear upon the manufacture generally, thus producing not only a good
article, but uniformly good, or as near uniform as is possible when
made in different families. Cheese had been sent abroad in small
amounts for many years, but when once by good quality and uniformity
it had secured a firm foothold, the amount exported increased with
astonishing rapidity. By gradual growth it had come to nine million
pounds in 1859, in 1860 it amounted to twenty-three millions, in
1861 to forty millions, and the demand and supply have steadily
increased ever since. It is a noteworthy fact that systematic
attempts to improve the manufacture of cheese began to be made both
in Somersetshire, England, and in Herkimer county, New York, about
the same time; and also, that with no knowledge on the part of either
of the progress made by the other, after lengthened experiments, both
should have adopted substantially the same method; for it is a fact
that the Cheddar and Herkimer methods so closely resemble each other
that the only differences of any consequence are such as necessarily
grow out of the difference of climate. Their process differs from
most methods mainly in two particulars; first, in employing milk
which has attained a proximate degree of acidity, although never
enough to be sensible to the taste, instead of such as is quite
new; and, second, in the separation of the whey from the curd by
causing its contraction and precipitation, instead of depending
mainly on mechanical means. The improvements thus introduced within
a comparatively recent period have resulted in several important
advantages: First, a material reduction of labor; second, the
production of a larger amount and a better quality of cheese from a
given quantity of milk; and, lastly, the cheese made by this method
requires less time for the ripening process, and thus is sooner ready
for the market.
Utensils Necessary to Stock a Factory.
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