[Illustration: Cutting the curd ] =Cheddaring or Matting.=—After thorough draining, the curd is packed together in the bottom of the vat or on a “sink” provided with a false bottom covered with cheese-cloth. After fermenting for 10 or 15 minutes it is cut into large pieces which are again packed together for further matting. The exact condition to be attained can be determined only by experience. [Illustration: “Cheddaring” or “Matting” the curd ] A simple test, the “Hot Iron Test,” may, however, help the cheesemaker to judge of this point. A handful of curd squeezed together and touched to a hot steam pipe or an iron rod heated almost red-hot in the fire under the boiler, and slowly withdrawn, will leave threads sticking to the iron. Depending upon the maturity of the curd, the threads will break at a length of from ½ to 2 inches. Usually fermentation is considered sufficient when threads 1½ inches long are formed by this test. [Illustration: Curd mill ] =Salting.=—The matting is then interrupted by breaking up and salting the curd. This can be done by hand or by a curd-mill which cuts or breaks up the curd and permits a thorough mixing in of the salt. Two or three pounds of salt to one hundred pounds of curd, or the curd from 1,000 lbs. of milk, is the usual ratio. =Pressing.=—Stirring and cooling the salted curd to about 80° F. makes it ready for packing into the hoops in which it is to be pressed. The hoop is usually a cylinder of heavy tin with a “follower” of wood on which the pressure is applied. Before the curd is put in, the hoop is lined with cheese-cloth which remains on the cheese, when it is taken out. The press mostly used in the factory is the continuous pressure “gang-press” in which a number of cheeses can be pressed at the same time. =Curing.=—After 18 hours’ pressure the cheese is taken out of the press and out of the hoop, weighed and placed on a shelf or table in the curing room. For the first week or ten days it is kept at a temperature of about 70°, later the cheese is removed to a cooler room and possibly placed in cold storage. Usually it is paraffined to prevent too much drying and cracking of the rind. [Illustration: Filling the curd into the hoops ] To cure a first-class Cheddar cheese takes from three to six months, but most of the American cheese is made to cure much more quickly and is eaten two to four months old. Indeed, it is generally shipped from the factory eight to ten days old and whatever further curing it gets is in the warehouse of the commissionman or in the grocery store. [Illustration: The Gang press ]