several times to insure even draining and even reduction of the temperature. While draining, a follower is placed in each hoop and a weight placed on each cheese. Usually a brick is used for this weight. A cheese is allowed to drain or press for ten to fifteen hours. It is then placed on the salting table and rubbed with coarse salt. While on the salting table, a cheese is placed on its broad side. Some cheese-makers prefer to salt their cheeses by soaking them in a salt brine. This brine should be strong enough to float an egg. Salting requires three days. The cheeses are then brushed free from excess salt and taken to the cellar to cure or ripen. +177. Ripening Brick cheese.+--For this process, the cellars are kept at about 90 percent relative humidity and a temperature of 60° to 65° F. Some prefer a temperature for curing as high as 68° F. During the curing, the surfaces of the cheese are kept moist and mold growths kept down by rubbing or brushing the cheese with pure water or salt and water. In the curing cellars the cheeses are placed on shelves; at first they are set close together and as they cure, they are separated. During curing, the color changes from a whitish to a reddish brown. The cheese cures from the outside toward the center. When first made, the product is harsh and hard in texture but during the ripening process it becomes mellow and smooth. The cheeses remain on the curing shelves for four to six weeks, after which they are wrapped in heavy waxed paper and boxed. A cheese ready for market usually weighs about five pounds. A Brick cheese box is 5 inches deep by 20 inches wide by 3 feet long, and holds 110 to 115 pounds of cheese.