Excitement, or fretfulness; change of locality, or to a different herd, with new companions; separation from her calf; periodical heat; annoyance from flies, or worry from dogs; exposure to storms, severe cold, or an oppressive sun, and many similar causes, diminish the quantity of milk and butter; but some of these may reasonably be expected to increase the proportion of its casein.
Dr. Playfair found that the quantity of butter in the evening milk, after the cow had been at pasture all day, was 3.7 per cent., while the casein was 5.4; after lying quietly all night, the milk from the same cow, on the following morning, contained 5.6 per cent. of butter, and only 3.9 of casein. In stabling the cow, the butter was invariably in greater proportion than when allowed to ramble in the pasture; and the casein, with a single exception, was equally diminished.
Fig. 17.Lactometer, or Cream Guage.
Fig. 17, is a number of glass tubes of equal size, set in a frame called alactometerorcream guage. If milk from different cows be set in these, the depth of the cream will indicate their comparative richness.
If milk be immediately set away in shallow vessels, after being taken from the cow, the cream rises to the surface, carrying with it most of the butter contained in the milk, and much of its casein also. Hence, the great nutritive properties of buttermilk, which retains the casein in very large proportions, much of it being rejected by the butter in its separation from the cream.
A temperature below 34°, will prevent the cream from rising in any considerable quantity, and preserve the milk unaltered for some weeks. Coagulating the milk from any cause, will equally prevent the separation of the cream. The elevation of temperature within certain limits, hastens the separation. Thus, at 50°, the cream will mostly have risen in 36 hours; at 55°, in 24; at 68°, in 18 or 20; and at 77°, in 10 or 12 hours.
Heating the milk near the boiling point, and then setting it away and allowing it to remain undisturbed, will soon cause the cream to rise. In the celebrated Orange dairy, near Baltimore, Md., this system was practised, by which, not only most of the cream was secured for butter, but in consequence of its rapid separation, the skimmed milk was sent to market within a few hours after being drawn; and the scalding imparted to it an agreeable flavor and apparent richness, which it did not really possess.
The celebrated clouted cream of Devonshire, England, and the butter made from it, contains an unusual quantity ofcasein, the consequence of heating the milk. "It is prepared by straining the warm milk into large shallow pans into which a little water has previously been put, allowing these to stand from six to twelve hours, and then carefully heating them over a slow fire, or on a hot plate, till the milk approaches the boiling point. The milk, however, must not actually boil, nor must the skin of the cream be broken. The dishes are now removed into the dairy, and allowed to cool. In summer the cream should be churned on the following day; in winter it may stand over two days. The quantity of cream obtained is said to be one-fourth greater by this method, and the milk which is left is proportionably poor."—[Johnston.]
Has much to do with the changes in milk, as in all other substances. Glass milk-pans might, therefore, be supposed to be the best vessels for keeping the milk unchanged and sweet.
It may possibly not afford any practical result, yet intelligent experiments for introducing a stream of electricity might well be justified, to aid in the separation of the butteraceous particles in the operation of churning.
Cream, for the purpose of churning, is usually allowed to become sour. It ought to be at least one day old, but may with advantage be kept several days in cool weather, if it be previously well freed from milk, and be frequently stirred to keep it from curdling. This sour cream is put into the churn, and worked in the usual way until the butter separates. This is collected into lumps, well beat and squeezed free from the milk, and in some dairies is washed with pure cold water as long as the water is rendered milky. In other localities the butter is not washed, but after being well beat, is carefully freed from the remaining milk by repeated squeezings and dryings with a clean cloth. Both methods, no doubt, have their advantages. In the same circumstances, the washed butter may be more easily preserved in the fresh state, while the unwashed butter will probably possess a higher flavor.
May be put into the churn and the butter be obtained, but in most cases it requires more labor and longer time, without, in the opinion of good judges, affording in general a finer quality of butter. In all cases the cream becomes sour during the agitation, and before the butter begins distinctly to form.
The churning of the clouted cream of this and other countries, forms an exception to the general rule just stated, that more time is required in the churning of sweet creams. Clouted cream may be churned in the morning after it is made, that is, within twenty-four hours of the time when the milk was taken from the cow; and from such cream it is well known that the butter separates with very great ease. But in this case, the heating of the cream has already disposed the oily matter to cohere, an incipient running together of the globules has probably taken place before the cream is removed from the milk, and hence the comparative ease with which the churning is effected. There is something peculiar in butter prepared in this way, as it is known in other countries by the name of Bohemian butter. It is said to be very agreeable in flavor, but it must contain more cheesy matter than the butter from ordinary cream.
Is a much more laborious method, from the difficulty of keeping in motion such large quantities of fluid. It has the advantage, however, of giving a larger quantity of butter. At Rennes, in Brittany, the milk of the previous evening is pouredinto the churnalong with the warm morning's milk, and the mixture is allowed to stand for some hours, when the whole is churned. In this way it is said that a larger quantity of butter is obtained, and of a more delicate flavor.
In the neighborhood of Glasgow, according to Mr. Aiton, the milk is allowed to stand six, twelve, or twenty-four hours in the dairy, till the whole has cooled, and the cream has risen to the surface. Two or three milkings, still sweet, are then poured together with their cream, into a large vessel, and are left undisturbed till the whole has become quite sour, and is completely coagulated. The proper sourness is indicated by the formation of a stiffbratupon the surfacewhich has become uneven. Great care must be taken to keep the brat and curd unbroken until the milk is about to be churned, for if any of the whey be separated, the air gains admission to it and to the curd, and fermentation is induced. By this fermentation, the quality of the butter may or may not be affected, but that of the buttermilk is almost sure to be injured.
In Holland the practice is a little different. The cream is not allowed to rise to the surface at all, but the milk is stirred two or three times a day, till it gets sour, and so thick that a wooden spoon will stand in it. It is then put into the churn, and the working, or the separation of the butter is assisted by the addition of a quantity of cold water. By churning the sour milk in one or other of these ways, the butter is said to be "rich, sound, and well-flavored." If it be greater in quantity, it is, according to Sprengel, because the fatty matter carries with it from the milk a larger quantity of casein than it does in most cases from the cream alone.
Cylindrical thermometer churn.Fig. 18.
For the production of the best butter, it is necessary that the cream should be sufficiently sour before it is put into the churn. Butter made from sweet cream (not clouted) is neither good in quality, nor large in quantity, and longer time is required in churning. It is an unprofitable method.
Fig. 18is aCylindrical Thermometer Churn, of any required size, with false metal bottom to hold cold or hot water for bringing the cream to the proper temperature. A thermometer, permanently set in the side, indicates the heat.
The more quickly milk or cream is churned, the paler, the softer, and the less rich the butter. Cream, according to Mr. Aiton, may be safely churned in an hour and a half, while milk ought to obtain from two to three hours. The churning ought always to be regular, slower in warm weather, that thebutter may not be soft and white, and quicker in winter, that the proper temperature may be kept up.
A barrel-churn, lately introduced into this country, being placed in a trough of water of the proper temperature, readily imparts the degree of heat required by the milk or cream without the necessity of adding warm water to the milk,and churns the whole in ten or twelve minutes. It is said also to give a larger weight of butter from the same quantity of milk. If the quality be really as good by this quick churning, the alleged inferiority in the quality of butter churned quickly in the common churn cannot be due to the mere rapidity of churning alone.
When the process of churning is continued after the full separation of the butter, it loses its fine yellowish, waxy appearance, and becomes soft and light-colored. The weight of the butter, however, is considerably increased; and hence, in Lancashire, over-churning is frequently practised in the manufacture of fresh butter for immediate sale.
Much also depends upon the temperature of the milk or cream when the churning is commenced. Cream when put into the churn should never be warmer than 55° Fahrenheit It rises during the churning from 4° to 10° F. above its original temperature. When the whole milk is churned, the temperature should be raised to 65° F., which is best done by pouring in hot water into the churnwhile the milk is kept in motion. In winter, either of these temperatures may be easily attained. In cold weather it is often necessary to add hot water to the cream to raise it even to 55°. But in summer, and especially in hot weather, it is difficult, even in cool and well-ordered dairies, (without the use of ice,) to keep the cream down to this comparatively low temperature. Hence, if the cream be then churned, a second-rate butter, at best, is all that can be obtained.
The proper temperature can be readily obtained both in winter and summer. A hundred gallons of entire milk, will give, in summer, five per cent. more butter than the creamfrom the same quantity of milk. Butter of the best quality can be obtained without difficulty, both in winter and summer. No special attention to circumstances, or change of method, is at any time required. The churning in winter and summer is alike simple and easy. The butter is not only of the best quality while fresh, but is also best for long-keeping, when properly cured or salted.
This is peculiarly necessary to the manufacture of good butter. Cream is remarkable for the rapidity with which it absorbs and becomes tainted by any unpleasant odors. It is very necessary that the air of the dairy should be sweet, that it should be often renewed, and that it should be open in no direction from which bad odors can come. (Johnston and other authorities.)
The statement of J. T. Lansing, who received the first premium for butter from the New York State Agricultural Society, is as follows:—
Keep the cows stabled through the inclement season; feed them from three to four times per day with good hay or green stalks; when near coming in, add some oats, barley, or corn cracked. In summer, good pasture, with living water accessible at all times, and plenty of salt.
Treatment of milk and cream before churning.—Strain the milk in tin pans; place them in a cool cellar for the cream to rise. When sufficiently risen, separate the cream from the milk; put in stone jars, well prepared before churning.
The mode of churning in summer.—Rinse the churn with cold water; then turn in the cream, and add to each jar of cream put in the churn, full one-fourth of the same quantity of cold water. The churn used is a patent one, moved by hand with a crank, having paddles attached, and so constructed as to warm the milk (if too cold) with hot water, without mixing them together. The milk and cream receive the same treatment in winter as in summer; and in churning, use hot instead of cold water, if necessary.
The method of freeing the butter from the milk, is to wash the butter with cold water, till it shows no color of the milk, by the use of a ladle.
Salting the butter.—Use the best kind of Liverpool sack-salt; the quantity varies according to the state in which the butter is taken from the churn; if soft, more; if hard, less;always taking the taste for the surest guide. Add no saltpetre, nor other substances.
The best time for churningis the morning, in hot weather, and to keep the butter cool till put down.
The best mode of preserving butter, in and through the summer and winter, is as follows:—The vessel is a stone jar, clean and sweet. The mode of putting it down is to put in a churning of butter, and put on strong brine; let it remain on until the next churning is ready to put down, and so on till the jar is filled; then cover it with fine salt the same to remain on till used.
Mr. McWilliams, of Orange county, the celebrity of whose butter is unsurpassed, thus details his method of butter-making:
"Our practice is not to churn the milk until it becomes thick or loppered, the milk and cream is then churned together. The temperature of the milk is about fifty degrees. In warm weather about a quart of cold water is put in each pan before the milk is strained, so as to keep it sweet as long as possible. The cellar-floor is brick. This in warm weather is daily cleansed with cold water. A drain from the cellar carries off the water thus applied. The churn is filled about half full with milk, with the addition of two pails of cold water before starting the churn. In cold weather the same quantity of warm water is applied. When the churning is finished, which usually occupies about two hours of time, there are then two more pails of cold water applied to raise the butter and cool it.
The butter is then taken out of the churn and put in a large tray; this is immediately filled with cold water, and the butter carefully washed; after which the water is thrown off. The butter now undergoes the process of salting; it is then placed in a cool situation, where it stands about an hour, and is worked carefully over. This finished, it is placed in the same situation as before, where it stands three or four hours, and is again worked over; again replaced for five or six hours, when it is worked over for the third time. It is now replaced, where it stands till the next morning, and worked over for the fourth time. A small quantity of nitre is then put in the butter. Thus finished, it is placed in firkins holding about eighty-five pounds.
Previous to packing, the firkin is scalded with hot water, rinsed and cooled with cold water, then rubbed all around with fine salt; this prevents the butter from adhering to thesides of the firkin. When the firkin is full, a linen cloth is placed over the top of the butter; on this cloth a covering of salt is put one inch deep, and cold water enough added to it to form a brine. It then stands till it is to be sent to market, when the cloth and salt are removed, the firkin turned down, the top of the butter in the keg washed with cold water, and the pickle drained off. The firkin is now neatly headed up and sent to market."
The salt added to the butter should be from 1-24th to 1-28th of its weight, or about two-thirds of an ounce to a pound, and this must be of the best quality. All the buttermilk must be thoroughly extracted by repeated washings; and when completed, the butter should be immediately packed, and not a particle of air allowed to come in contact with it till opened for the table.
"All cheese consists essentially of the curd, mixed with a certain portion of the fatty matter, and of the sugar of milk. But differences in the quality of the milk, in the proportion in which the several constituents of milk are mixed together, or in the general mode of dairy management, give rise to varieties of cheese almost without number. Nearly every dairy district produces one or more qualities of cheese peculiar to itself.
It is obvious that whatever gives rise to natural differences in the quality of the milk, must affect also that of the cheese prepared from it. If the milk be poor in butter, so must the cheese be. If the pasture be such as to give a milk rich in cream, the cheese will partake of the same quality. If the herbage or other food affect the taste of the milk or cream, it will also modify the flavor of the cheese.
So the milk of different animals will give cheese of unlike qualities. The ewe-milk cheeses of Tuscany, Naples, and Languedoc, and those of goats' milk made on Mont Dor and elsewhere, are celebrated for qualities which are not possessed by cheeses prepared from cows' milk in a similar way. Buffalo milk also gives a cheese of peculiar qualities, which is manufactured in some parts of the Neapolitan territory."
Other kinds of cheese are made from mixtures of the milk of different animals. Thus the strong-tasted cheese of Lecca and the celebrated Roquefort cheese are prepared from mixtures of goat with ewe milk, and the cheese of Mont Cenis from both of these mixed with the milk of the cow.
Still further differences are produced, according to the proportion of cream which is left in or is added to the milk. Thus, if cream only be employed, we have the richcream-cheesewhich must be eaten in a comparatively recent state. Or, if the cream of the previous night's milking be added to the new milk of the morning, we may have such cheese as theStiltonof England, or the small, soft, and richBriecheeses, so much esteemed in France.
If the entire milk only be used, we have such cheeses as theCheshire, theDouble Gloucester, theCheddar, theWiltshire, and theDunlopcheeses of Britain, the Kinnegad cheese of Ireland, and the Gouda and Edam cheeses of Holland. Even here, however, it makes a difference, whether the warm milk from the cow is curdled alone, as at Gouda and Edam, or whether it is mixed with the milk of the evening before, as is generally done in Cheshire and Ayrshire. Many persons are of opinion that cream, which has once been separated, can never be so well mixed again with the milk, that a portion of the fatty matter shall not flow out with the whey and render the cheese less rich.
If the cream of the evening's milk be removed, and the skimmed milk added to the new milk of the next morning, such cheeses as theSingle Gloucesterare obtained. If the cream be taken once fromallthe milk, the better kinds of skimmed-milk cheese, such as the Dutch cheese of Leyden, are prepared; while if the milk be twice skimmed, we have the poorer cheeses of Friesland and Groningen. If skimmed for three or four days in succession, we get the hard and horny cheeses of Essex and Sussex, which often require the axe to break them up.
But poor or butterless cheese will also differ in quality according to the state of the milk from which it is extracted. If the new milk be allowed to stand to throw up its cream, and this be then removed in the usual way, the ordinary skimmed-milk cheese will be obtained by adding rennet to the milk. But if, instead of skimming, we allow the milk to stand till it begins to sour, and then remove the butter by churning the whole, we obtain the milk in a sour state, (buttermilk.) From this milk the curd separates naturally by gentle heating. But being thus prepared from sour milk, and without the use of rennet, buttermilk cheese differs more or less in quality from that which is made from sweet skimmed-milk. The acid in the buttermilk, especially after it has stood a day or two, is capable of coagulating new milk also; and thus, by mixing more or less sweet milk with the buttermilk before it is warmed, several other qualities of mixed butter and sweet-milk cheese may readily be manufactured.
The whey which separates from the curd, and especially the white whey, which is pressed out towards the last, contains a portion of curd, and not unfrequently a considerable quantity of butter also. When the whey is heated, the curd and butter rise to the surface, and are readily skimmed off. This curd alone will often yield a cheese of excellent quality, and so rich in butter, that a very good imitation of Stilton cheese may sometimes be made with alternate layers of new-milk curd and this curd of whey.
New varieties of cheese are formed by mixing vegetable substances with the curd. A green decoction of two parts of sage leaves, one of marigold, and a little parsley, gives its color to thegreen cheeseof Wiltshire; some even mix up the entire leaves with the curd. The celebrated Schabzieger cheese of Switzerland, is made by crushing the skim-milk cheese after it is several months old to fine powder in a mill, mixing it then with one-tenth of its weight of fine salt, and one-twentieth of the powdered leaves of the mellilot trefoil, (trifolium melilotus cerulea,) and afterwards with oil or butter, working the whole into a paste, which is pressed and carefully dried.
As they are called, are made in various ways. One pound of sour milk is mixed with five pounds of boiled potatoes and a little salt, and the whole is beat into a pulp, which, afterstanding five or six days, is worked up again, and then dried in the usual way. Others mix three parts of dried boiled potatoes with two of fresh curd, or equal weights, or more curd than potato, according to the quality required. Such cheeses are made in Thuringia, in Saxony, and in other parts of Germany. In Savoy, an excellent cheese is made by mixing one of the pulp of potatoes with three of ewe-milk curd; and in Westphalia, a potato cheese is made with skimmed milk.
Rennet is prepared from the salted stomach or intestines of the sucking calf, the unweaned lamb, the young kid, or even the young pig. In general, however, the stomach of the calf is preferred, and there are various ways of curing and preserving it.
The stomach of the newly killed animal contains a quantity of curd derived from the milk on which it has been fed. In most districts, it is usual to remove by a gentle washing the curd and slimy matters which are present in the stomach, as they are supposed to impart a strong taste to the cheese. In Cheshire, the curd is frequently salted separately for immediate use. In Ayrshire and Limburg, on the other hand, the curd is always left in the stomach and salted along with it. Some even give the calf a copious draught of milk shortly before it is killed, in order that the stomach may contain a larger quantity of the valuable curd.
In the mode of salting the stomach, similar differences prevail. Some merely put a few handfuls of salt into and around it, then roll it together, and hang it near the chimney to dry. Others salt it in a pickle for a few days, and then hang it up to dry; while others pack several of them in layers, with much salt both within and without, and preserve them in a cool place, till the cheese-making season of the following year. They are then taken out, drained from the brine, spread upon a table, sprinkled with salt which is rolled in with a wooden roller, and then hung up to dry. In some foreign countries, the recent stomach is minced very fine, mixed with salt and bread into a paste, put into a bladder, and then dried. In Lombardy, the stomach, after being salted and dried, is minced and mixed up with salt, pepper, and a little whey or water into a paste, which is preserved for use.
In whatever way the stomach or intestine of the calf is prepared and preserved, the almost universal opinion seems to be, that it should be kept for 10 or 12 months, before it is capable of yielding the best and strongest rennet. If newer than 12 months, the rennet is thought to make the cheese heave or swell, and become full of eyes or holes.
In making the rennet, different customs also prevail. In some districts, a bit of the dried stomach is put into half a pint of lukewarm water, with as much salt as will lie upon a shilling, is allowed to stand over night, and in the morning the infusion is poured into the milk. For a cheese of 60 lbs. weight, a piece of the size of a dollar will often be sufficient, though of some skins as much as 10 square inches are required to produce the same effect. It is, however, more common to take the entire stomach, and to pour upon them from one to three quarts of water for each stomach, and to allow them to infuse for several days. If only one has been infused, and the rennet is intended for immediate use, the infusion requires only to be skimmed and strained. But if several be infused, or as many as have been provided for the whole season, about two quarts of water are taken for each, and, after standing not more than two days, the infusion is poured off, and is completely saturated with salt. During the summer it is constantly skimmed, and fresh salt added from time to time. Or a strong brine may at once be poured upon the skins, and the infusion, when the skins are taken out, may be kept for a length of time. Some even recommend, that the liquid rennet should not be used until it is at least two months old. When thus kept, however, it is indispensable that the water should be fully saturated with salt.
In Ayrshire, and in some other countries, it is customary to cut the dried stomach into small pieces, and to put it, with a handful or two of salt and one or two quarts of water, into a jar, to allow it to stand for two or three days, afterwards to pour upon it another pint for a couple of days, to mix the two decoctions, and when strained, to bottle the whole for future use. In this state it may be kept for many months.
In making rennet, some use pure water only, others prefer clear whey, others a decoction of leaves, such as those of the sweetbrier, the dog-rose, and the bramble, or of aromatic herbs and flowers; while others again, put in lemons, cloves, mace,or brandy. These various practices are adopted for the purpose of making the rennet keep better, of lessening its unpleasant smell, of preventing any unpleasant taste it might give to the curd, or finally of directly improving the flavor of the cheese. The acidity of the lemon will, no doubt, increase also the coagulating power of any rennet to which it may be added.
The rennet thus prepared is poured into the milk previously raised to the temperature of 90° or 95° F., and is intimately mixed with it. The quantity which it is necessary to add varies with the quality of the rennet, from a tablespoonful to half a pint for 30 or 40 gallons of milk. The time necessary for the complete fixing of the curd varies also from 15 minutes to an hour or even an hour and a half. The chief causes of this variation, are the temperature of the milk, and the quality and quantity of the rennet employed.
The temperature of new or entire milk, when the rennet is added, should be raised to about 95° F.; that of skimmed milk need not be quite so high. If the milk be warmer the curd is hard and tough, if colder, it is soft and difficult to obtain free from the whey. When the former happens to be the case, a portion of the first whey that separates may be taken out into another vessel, allowed to cool, and then poured in again. If it prove to have been too cold, hot milk or water may be added to it; or a vessel containing hot water may be put into it before the curdling commences; or the first portion of whey that separates may be heated and poured again upon the curd. The quality of the cheese, however, will always be more or less affected, when it happens to be necessary to adopt any of these remedies. To make the best cheese, the true temperature should always be attained as nearly as possible, before the rennet is added.
If, as is the case in some dairies, the milk be warmed in an iron pot upon the naked fire, great care must be taken that it is not singed orfire-fanged. A very slight inattention may cause this to be the case, and the taste of the cheese is sure to be more or less affected by it. In Cheshire, the milk is put into a large tin pail, which is plunged into a boiler of hot water, and frequently stirred till it is raised to the proper temperature. In large dairy establishments, however, the safestmethod is to have a pot with a double bottom, consisting of one pot within another, after the manner of a glue-pot; the space between the two being filled with water. The fire applied beneath, thus acts only upon the water, and can never, by any ordinary neglect, do injury to the milk. It is desirable in this heating, not to raise the temperature higher than is necessary, as a great heat is apt to give an oiliness to the fatty matter of the milk.
This is also of importance. It should be broken up as soon as the milk is fully coagulated. The longer it stands after this, the harder and tougher it will become.
This is of much importance, not only in regard to the certainty of the coagulation, but also to the flavor of the cheese. In some parts of Cheshire, it is usual to take a piece of the dried membrane and steep it overnight with a little salt for the ensuing morning's milk. It is thus sure to be fresh and sweet, if the driedmawbe in good preservation. But where it is customary to steep several skins at a time, and to bottle the rennet for after-use, it is very necessary to saturate the solution completely with salt, and to season it with spices, in order that it may be preserved in a sweet and wholesome state.
This ought to be regulated as carefully as the temperature of the milk. Too much renders the curd tough; too little causes the loss of much time, and may permit a larger portion of the butter to separate itself from the curd. It is to be expected also, that when rennet is used in great excess, a portion of it will remain in the curd, and will naturally affect the kind and rapidity of the changes it afterwards undergoes. Thus, it is said to cause the cheese to heave or swell out from fermentation. It is probable, also, that it will affect the flavor which the cheese acquires by keeping. Thus it may be, that the agreeable or unpleasant taste of the cheeses of certain districts or dairies may be less due to the quality of the pastures or of the milk itself, than to the quantity of rennet with which it has there been customary to coagulate the milk.
This, no less than its state of preservation and the quantity employed, may also influence the flavor or other qualities of the cheese. For instance, in the manufacture of a celebrated French cheese, that of Epoisse, the rennet is prepared as follows:—Four fresh calf-skins, with the curd they contain, are well washed in water, chopped into small pieces, and digested in a mixture of 5 quarts of brandy with 15 of water, adding at the same time 2½ lbs. of salt, half an ounce of black pepper, and a quarter of an ounce each of cloves and fennel seeds. At the end of six weeks, the liquor is filtered and preserved in well-corked bottles, while the membrane is put into salt-water to form a new portion of rennet. For making rich cheeses, the rennet should always be filtered clear.
On Mont d'Or, the rennet is made with white wine and vinegar. An ounce of common salt is dissolved in a mixture of half a pint of vinegar with 2½ pints of white wine, and in this solution a prepared goat's stomach ora piece of dried pig's bladderis steeped for a length of time. A single spoonful of this rennet is said to be sufficient for 45 or 50 quarts of milk. No doubt the acid of the vinegar and of the wine aid the coagulating power derived from the membrane.
It is usual in our best cheese districts, carefully and slowly to separate the curd from the whey, not to hasten the separation, lest a larger portion of the fatty matter should be squeezed out of the curd, and the cheese should thus be rendered poorer than usual. But in some places, the practice prevails of washing the curd with hot water, after the whey has been partially separated from it. Thus at Gouda in Holland, after the greater part of the whey has been gradually removed, a quantity of hot water is added, and allowed to remain upon it for at least a quarter of an hour. The heat makes the cheese more solid and causes it to keep better.
In Italy, the pear-shapedcaccio-cavallocheeses and the roundpallonicheeses of Gravina, in the Neapolitan territory, are made from curd, which after being scalded with boiling whey, is cut into slices, kneaded in boiling water, worked with the hand till it is perfectly tenacious and elastic, and then made into shapes. The water in which the curd is washed, after standing twenty-four hours, throws up much oily matter, which is skimmed off and made into butter.
Is a part of the process, upon which the quality of the cheese in a considerable degree depends. In Cheshire, more time and attention is devoted to the perfect extraction of the whey than in almost any other district. Indeed, when it is considered that the whey contains sugar and lactic acid, which may undergo decomposition, and a quantity of rennet which may bring on fermentation, by both of which processes the flavor of the cheeses must be considerably affected, it will appear of great importance that the whey should be as completely removed from the curd as it can possibly be. To aid in effecting this, a curd-mill, for chopping it fine after the whey isstrainedoff, is in use in many of the large English dairies, and a very ingenious and effectual pneumatic cheese-press for sucking out the whey, was lately invented.
But the way in which the whey is separated is not a matter of indifference, and has much influence upon the quality of the cheese. Thus, in Norfolk, according to Marshall, when the curd is fairly set, the dairy-maid bares her arm, plunges it into the curd, and with the help of her wooden ladle, breaks up minutely, and intimately mixes the curd with the whey. This she does for ten or fifteen minutes, after which the curd is allowed to subside, and the whey is drawn off. By this agitation, the whey must carry off more of the butter and the cheese must be poorer.
In Cheshire and Ayrshire, the curd is cut with a knife, but is gently used and slowly pressed till it is dry enough to be chopped fine, and thus more of the oily matter is retained. On the same principle, in making the Stilton cheese, the curd is not cut or broken at all, but is pressed gently and with care till the whey gradually drains out. Thus the butter and the curd remain intermixed, and the rich cheese of Stilton is the result. Thus, while it is of importance that all the whey should be extracted from the curd, yet the quickest way may not be the best. More time and care must be bestowed in order to effect this object, the richer the cheese we wish to obtain.
The quality of the milk or of the pastures, may often be blamed for the deficiencies in the richness or other qualities of cheese, which are in reality due to slight but material differences in the mode of manufacturing it.
The kind of saltused, is considered by many to have some effect upon the taste of the cheese. Thus the cheese of Gerome, in the Vosges, is supposed to derive a peculiar taste from the Lorena salt with which it is cured. In Holland, the efficacy of one kind of salt over another for the curing of cheese is generally acknowledged.
In making the large Cheshire cheeses, the dried curd, for a single cheese of sixty pounds, is broken down fine and divided into three equal portions. One of these is mingled with double the quantity of salt added to the others, and this is so put into the cheese-vat as to form the central part of the cheese. By this precaution, the after-salting on the surface is sure to penetrate deep enough to cure effectually the less salted parts.
In the counties of Gloucester and Somerset the curd is pressed without salt, and the cheese, when formed, is made to absorb the whole of the salt afterwards through its surface. This is found to answer well with the small and thin cheeses made in those counties, but were it adopted for the large cheeses of Cheshire and Dunlop, or even for the pine-apple cheeses of Wiltshire, there can be no doubt that their quality would frequently be injured. It may not be impossible to cause salt to penetrate into the very heart of a large cheese, but it cannot be easy in this way to salt the whole cheese equally, while the care and attention required must be greatly increased.
Another mode of improving the quality of cheese, is by the addition of cream or butter to the dried and crumbled curd. Much diligence, however, is required fully to incorporate these, so that the cheese may be uniform throughout. Still this practice gives a peculiar character to the cheeses of certain districts. In Italy, they make a cheeseafter the manner of the English, into which a considerable quantity of butter is worked; and theReckemcheese of Belgium is made by adding half an ounce of butter and the yolk of anegg, to every pound of pressed curd.
From the same milk, it is obvious that cheeses of different sizes, if treated in the same way, will, at the end of a given number of months, possess qualities in a considerable degree different. Hence, without supposing any inferiority, either inthe milk or in the general mode of treatment, the size usually adopted for the cheeses of a particular district or dairy, may be the cause of a recognised inferiority in some quality, which it is desirable that they should possess in a high degree.
This has very much influence upon the quality of the cheese. The care with which they are salted, the warmth of the place in which they are kept during the first two or three weeks, the temperature and closeness of the cheese-room in which they are afterwards preserved, the frequency of turning, of cleaning from mould, and rubbing with butter; all these circumstances exercise a remarkable influence upon the after-qualities of the cheese. Indeed, in very many instances, the high reputation of a particular dairy district or dairy farm, is derived from some special attention to some or to all of these apparently minor points.
In Tuscany, the cheeses, after being hung up for some time at a proper distance from the fire, are put to ripen in an underground, cool, and damp cellar; and the celebrated French cheeses of Roquefort, are supposed to owe much of the peculiar estimation in which they are held, to the cool and uniform temperature of the subterranean caverns in which the inhabitants of the village have long been accustomed to preserve them.
The influence of the mode of curing, is shown very strikingly in the small ammoniacal cheeses of Brie, which are very much esteemed in Paris. They are soft unpressed cheeses, which are allowed to ripen in a room, the temperature of which is kept between 60° and 70° Fahrenheit, till they begin to undergo the putrefactive fermentation, and emit an ammoniacal odor. They are generally unctuous, and sometimes so small as not to weigh more than an ounce.
It is said that a cheese, possessed of no very striking taste of its own, may be inoculated with any flavor we approve, by putting into it with a scoop a small portion of the cheesewhich we are desirous that it should be made to resemble. Of course, this can apply only to cheeses otherwise of equal richness, for we could scarcely expect to give a Gloucester the flavor of a Stilton, by merely patting into it a small portion of a rich and esteemed Stilton cheese. [Johnston and various other authorities.]
Fig. 19.Cheese-Press.
Fig. 19is aself-acting cheese-press, light yet strong. The cheese itself gives a pressure of twelve times its own weight; and if this is insufficient, additional weight may be added as required.
The following statements were made by those receiving premiums from the New York State Agricultural Society:
"Number of cows kept, eleven. Cheese made from two milkings, in the English manner; no addition made of cream. For a cheese of twenty pounds, a piece of rennet about two inches square is soaked about twelve hours in one pint of water. As rennets differ much in quality, enough should be used to coagulate the milksufficientlyin about forty minutes. No salt is putintothe cheese, nor any on the outside during the first six or eight hours it is pressed; but a thin coat of fine Liverpool salt is kept on the outside during the remainder of the time it remains in press. The cheeses are pressed forty-eight hours, under a weight of seven or eight cwt. Nothing more is required but to turn the cheeses once a day on the shelves."
"The milk is strained in large tubs over night; the cream stirred in milk, and in the morning strained in same tub; milk heated to natural heat; add color and rennet; curd broke fine and whey off, and broke fine in hoop with fast bottom, and put in strainer; pressed twelve hours; then taken fromhoop, and salt rubbed on the surface; then put in hoop, without strainer, and pressed forty-eight hours; then put on tables, and salt rubbed on surface, and remain in salt six days, for cheese weighing thirty pounds. The hoops to have holes in the bottom; the crushings are saved, and set, and churned, to grease the cheese. The above method is for making one cheese per day. As in butter-making, the utmost cleanliness is required in every part of the cheese-making premises."
With the exception of the dog, there is no one of the brute creation which exhibits the diversity of size, color, form, covering, and general appearance, which characterizes the sheep, and none which occupies a wider range of climate, or subsists on a greater variety of food. In every latitude between the equator and the arctic, he ranges over the sterile mountains, and through the fertile valleys. He feeds on almost every species of edible forage, the cultivated grasses, clovers, cereals and roots; he browses on aromatic and bitter herbs; he crops the leaves and bark from the stunted forest shrubs, and the pungent, resinous evergreens. In some parts of Norway and Sweden, when other resources fail, he subsists on fish or flesh during their long and rigorous winters, and if reduced to necessity, he eats his own wool.
He is diminutive like the Orkney, or massive like the Teeswater. He is policerate or many horned; he has two large or small spiral horns like the Merino, or is polled or hornless like the mutton sheep. He has a long tail like our own breeds; a broad tail, like many of the eastern; or a mere button of a tail, like the fat-rumps, discernible only by the touch. His coat is sometimes long and coarse, like the Lincolnshire; short and hairy, like those of Madagascar; soft and furry, like the Angola; or fine and spiral, like the silken Saxon. His color, either pure or fancifully mixed, varies from the white or black of our own country, to every shade of brown, dun, buff, blue, and gray, like the spotted flocks of the Cape of Good Hopeand other parts of Africa and Asia. This wide diversity is the result of long domestication, under almost every conceivable variety of condition.
Among the antediluvians, sheep were immolated for sacrificial offerings, and their fleeces probably furnished them with clothing. Since the deluge, their flesh has with all nations been used as a favorite food for man. By many of the rude, roving nations of the East, they are employed in carrying burdens.
Their milk is generally used by the uncivilized, and to some extent by the refined nations of Europe, not only as a beverage, but for making into cheese, butter, and curds. Job refers to its use, as do Isaiah and other of the Old Testament writers. Most of the Greek and Roman authors describe its general use and manufacture. The ewe's milk scarcely differs in appearance from that of the cow, but is generally thicker, and yields a pale, yellowish butter, that is always soft and soon becomes rancid. Culley remarks, "the cheese from their milk is exceedingly pungent, and for that reason is preferred by many to that from the cow." In Wales, the milk is mixed with that of the dairy, and makes a tart, palatable cheese. We have never seen it appropriated for dairy purposes in the United States, except by a few Welsh and Highland emigrants. The sheep is frequently employed in the dairy regions of this country, at the tread-mill or horizontal wheel, to pump the water, churn the milk, or perform other light domestic work.
The dignity and importance of the shepherd's vocationhave ever been conspicuous. Abel, the supposed twin-brother of the first-born of the human race, was a "keeper of sheep;" and from this, it may be fairly inferred, that there is no animal which has so long been under the immediate control of man. Abraham and his descendants, as well as most of the ancient patriarchs, were shepherds. Job had 14,000 sheep. It is said of Rachel, the favored mother of the Jewish race, "she came with her father's sheep, for she kept them." The seven daughters of the priest of Midian, "came and drew water for their father's flocks." Moses, the statesman and lawgiver, who "was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, kept the flocks of Jethro, his father-in-law;" and David, the future monarch of Israel, the hero, poet, and divine, was a keeper of sheep. It was to shepherds, while "abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night," that thebirth of the Saviour was announced. The root of the Hebrew name for sheep, signifies fruitfulness, abundance, plenty; as indicating the blessings they were destined to confer on the human race. With the sacred writers, they were the chosen symbol of purity and the gentler virtues; they were the victims of propitiatory sacrifices; and finally, they became the type of redemption to fallen man. These may not be considered accidental allusions in a book, whose every feature is full of design.
Nor has the sheep been less the subject of eulogy and attention with profane writers. Among these, Homer and Hesiod, Virgil and Theocritus, introduced them with evident delight in their pastoral themes; while their heroes and demigods, Hercules and Ulysses, Æneas and Numa, carefully perpetuated them throughout their regal domains.
In modern times, they have commanded the attention of the most enlightened nations; and their prosperity has in no instance been independent of those useful animals, wherever wool and its manufactures have been regarded as essential staples. Spain and Portugal, for more than two centuries, were the most enterprising nations of Europe, and during that period, they excelled in the production and manufacture of wool. Flanders, for a time, was before England in the perfection of the arts and the enjoyments of life, andEngland then sent the little wool she raised to that country to be manufactured. Her politic sovereigns soon found this a losing game, and offered large bounties for the importation of artists and machinery. By a systematic and thorough course of legislation, which looked to the utmost protection and augmentation of wool and woollens, she has carried their production beyond any thing the world has ever seen. The small islands of Great Britain and Ireland, in addition to the support of their 26,000,000 of people, 15,000,000 of cattle, 2,250,000 horses, 18,000,000 swine, and innumerable smaller domestic animals, maintain over 40,000,000 sheep, worth $250,000,000; and besides manufacturing nearly all their fleeces, annually import nearly an equal amount from abroad. The sumptuary law for burying the dead in woollen, still occupies its place in their statute book. And beyond all question, England is the leading power of the nineteenth century, in the combination of all those qualities which constitute national greatness, civilization, and strength.
Naturalists have divided the wild sheep into four varieties. TheMusimon, (Ovis Musimon,) inhabiting Corsica, Sardinia, and other islands of the Mediterranean, the mountainous parts of Spain and Greece, and some other regions bordering upon that inland sea, have been frequently domesticated and mixed with the long-cultivated breeds.
TheArgali, (O. Ammon,) ranges over the steppes, or elevated plains of Central Asia, northward and eastward to the ocean. They are larger, more hardy, and more untameable than the Musimon.
TheRocky Mountain Sheep, (O. Montana,) frequently called theBig-hornby our western hunters, is found on the prairies west of the Mississippi, and throughout the wild mountainous regions, extending through California and Oregon to the Pacific. They are larger, but in other respects resemble the Argali, of which they are probably descendants, as they could easily cross upon the ice at Behring's Straits, from the northeastern coast of Asia. Like the Argali, when caught young they are easily tamed; but we are not aware that they have ever been bred with the domestic sheep. Before the country was overrun by the white man, they probably inhabited the region bordering on the Mississippi. Father Hennepin, a French Jesuit, who wrote nearly two hundred years ago, often speaks of meeting with goats in his travels through what is now the territory embraced by Illinois and Wisconsin. The wild, clambering propensities of these animals, occupying the giddy heights far beyond the reach of the traveller, and the outer coating of hair (supplied underneath, however, with a thick coating of soft wool) gives to them much of the appearance of that animal. In summer they are generally found single; but when they descend from their isolated, rocky heights in winter, they are gregarious, marching in flocks under the guidance of leaders.
TheBearded Sheep of Africa(O. Tragelaphus) inhabit the mountains of Barbary and Egypt. They are covered with a soft, reddish hair, and have a mane hanging below the neck, and large locks of hair at the ankle.
Embraces all the varieties of the subjugated species. Whether they have descended from any one of the wild races, is aquestion yet undetermined among naturalists; but however this may be, many of the varieties apparently differ less from their wild namesakes than from each other.
Thefat-rumpedandthe broad-tailed sheepare much more extensively diffused than any other. They occupy nearly all the southeastern part of Europe, Western and Central Asia, and Northern Africa. They are supposed to be the varieties which were propagated by the patriarchs and their descendants, the Jewish race. This is inferred from various passages in the Pentateuch, Exodus xxix. 22; Leviticus iii. 9; viii. 25; ix. 19, and some others, where "the fat and the rump" are spoken of in connection with offerings, in which the fat was always an acceptable ingredient. Dr. Boothroyd renders one of the foregoing passages, "the large, fat tail entire, taken clear to the rump." It is certain this variety gives indisputable evidence of remote and continued subjugation. Their long, pendent, drowsy ears, and the highly artificial posterior developments, are characteristic of no wild or recently-domesticated race.
This breed consists of numerous sub-varieties, differing in all their characteristics of size, fleece, color, &c., with quite as many and marked shades of distinction as the modern European varieties. In Madagascar, they are covered with hair; in the south of Africa, with coarse wool; in the Levant, and along the Mediterranean, the wool is comparatively fine; and from that of the fat-rumped sheep of Thibet the exquisite Cashmere shawls are manufactured. Both rams and ewes are sometimes bred with horns, and sometimes without, and they exhibit a great diversity of color. Some yield a carcass of scarcely 30 lbs., while others have weighed 200 lbs. dressed. The tail or rump varies greatly, according to the purity and style of breeding; some are less than one-eighth, while others exceed one-third the entire dressed weight. The fat of the rump or tail is considered a great delicacy, and in hot climates resembles oil, and in colder, suet.
The broad-tailed sheep were brought into this country, about 50 years since, by Commodore Barron and Judge Peters, and bred with the native flocks. They were called the Tunisian mountain sheep. Some of them were subsequently distributed by Col. Pickering, of Massachusetts, among the farmers of Pennsylvania; and their mixed descendants were highly prized as prolific and good nurses, coming early to maturity, attaining large weights, of a superior quality of carcass, and yielding a heavy fleece of excellent wool. The principal objection brought against them, was the difficulty of propagation, which always required the assistance of the shepherd. The lambs were dropped white, red, tawny, bluish, or black; but all excepting the black, grew white as they approached maturity, retaining some spots of the original color on the cheeks and legs, and sometimes having the entire head tawny or black. The few which descended from those originally imported into this country, have become blended with American flocks, and are now scarcely distinguishable from them.
Strictly speaking, there are no sheep indigenous to North America, excepting theOvis Montana, or Rocky Mountain sheep. Before the introduction of the improved European breeds, during the present century, our sheep were generally a hardy, long-legged, coarse, open-fleeced animal, which yielded, according to attention and feed, from 1½ to 4 lbs. of indifferent wool. We have seen numerous flocks within the last 20 years, of the pure-bred native, whose bellies were entirely destitute of wool, and sometimes the whole carcass was bare, excepting a mere strip or ridge like a mane, reaching from the head to the tail. The wool which was retained on the neck, back, and sides, was frequently matted almost as firmly as a leather apron; and that on the thighs, and sometimes on the sides, was often composed almost wholly of long hair.
Although indifferently formed in comparison with the best breeds of the present day, being thin in the breast and back, light quartered, and slow in coming to maturity, they yet possessed some good qualities. They were prolific, excellent nurses, tallowed well, and yielded good mutton. There were, occasionally, some smutty-nosed or brockle-faced sheep among them, distinguished by their additional size, superior merits, and courage. These were usually the leaders of the flock, in their marauding expeditions on their neighbor's domains; and in common with the others, they were eminently adapted to purvey for themselves on the frontier settlements. There were, besides, some black or dark chocolate-brown members in every flock, which were much valued by the thrifty housewife for their wool, which afforded an economical mixture for jackets, hose, and trousers, known as sheep's gray.
Our original stock were principally derived from England, where their counterparts may be seen at the present day, in the refuse breeds of that country. When these sheep werewell selected and properly bred, there was rapid and satisfactory improvement, and from such flocks, mixed with some of the more recently improved varieties, have sprung many valuable animals.
There was but one exception to this general character of the native flocks, so far as our observation extended, which was a considerably numerous, and, probably, accidental variety, known as theOtter breed, orCreepers. These were an excessively duck-legged animal, with well-formed bodies, full chest, broad backs, yielding a close heavy fleece of medium quality of wool. They were deserved favorites where indifferent stone or wood fences existed, as their power of locomotion was absolutely limited to their enclosures, if protected by a fence not less than two feet high. The quality of their mutton was equal, while their aptitude to fatten was decidedly superior to their longer-legged contemporaries. They are probably now nearly or quite extinct.
An excellent variety was produced by General Washington, from a cross of a Persian ram, upon the Bakewell, which bore wool 14 inches in length, soft and silky, and admirably suited to combing. They were called the Arlington sheep, but they have long since become incorporated with the other flocks of the country.
This is undoubtedly one of the most ancient race of sheep extant. The loose descriptions and indefinite generalities of the ancient writers, leave much to conjecture on this point; yet we have a few passages from Pliny, Columella, and some other Roman authors, which leave little doubt that the Merino was bred in their age, and had even been introduced into Italy from Greece. It is a matter of history, that the Greeks had choice breeds of sheep at an early day, which they might have derived from Egypt, Tyre, and Asia Minor, as they were intimately connected in commerce with those countries, where the woollen manufacture early reached great perfection. It is supposed that the celebrated Argonautic expedition, in quest of the golden fleece, undertaken by the Greeks nearly 1300 years before Christ, resulted in procuring a valuable race of sheep from Colchis, in the Euxine.
However this may be, it is certain that when Augustus extended his peaceful sceptre over half the known world, the Romans were in possession of some flocks, bearing fleeces ofexceeding fineness and beauty. They had been reared in the province of Apulia, on the southeast coast of Italy, and were called Tarentine, from Tarentum, the capital of the province. Here, then, may have been one branch of the Merino family.
Another is undoubtedly described by Pliny, who says, "thered fleece of Bæticawas of still superior quality,and had no fellow." All the Spanish coast on the Mediterranean, of which Bætica formed a considerable part, comprising the modern Spanish provinces of Jaen, Cordova, Seville, Andalusia, and Granada, was early colonized by the enterprising Greeks; and thisred fleece that had no fellow, was probably introduced by them at an early day, and by their descendants had been carried to a still higher degree of perfection than that of Apulia. Columella, the uncle of the writer on agriculture, a wealthy emigrant to Spain from Italy,A. D.30, carried with him some of the Tarentine sheep, and thus added to the fine-woolled sheep of Spain. These two ancient streams, united perhaps with a third from the more ancient stock of the Euxine, (for Strabo asserts that some of the finest-woolled sheep were brought from that region in his time, and sold for the enormous sum of $750,) flowed on in an uninterrupted current over that broad country, and brought down to modern times the unrivalled race of the Merino. The limited region of Italy, overrun as it repeatedly was by hordes of barbarians during and after the times of the late emperors, soon lost her pampered flocks; while the extended regions of Spain, intersected in every direction by almost impassable mountains, could maintain their more hardy race, in defiance of revolution or change.
Whatever distrust may be attached to these scraps of history, which apparently establish the remote antiquity of the Merino, this much is absolutely certain, that they are a race whose qualities are inbred, to an extent surpassed by no others. They have been improved in the general weight and evenness of their fleece, as in the celebrated flock of Rambouillet; in the uniformity and excessive fineness of fibre, as in the Saxons; and in their form and feeding qualities, in various countries; but there has never yet been deterioration either in quantity or quality of fleece or carcass, wherever transported, if supplied with suitable food and attention. Most sheep annually shed their wool if unclipped; while the Merino retains its fleece, sometimes for five years, when allowed to remain unshorn. This we conceive affords conclusive evidence of long-continued breeding among themselves, by which the very constitution of the wool-producing organs beneath the skin have become permanently established; and this property is transmitted to a great extent even among the crosses, thus marking them as an ancient and peculiar race.
The conquest by the Moors of a part of those fine provinces in the south of Spain, so far from checking, served rather to encourage the production of fine wool. They were not only enterprising, but highly skilled in the useful arts, and carried on extensive manufactories of fine woollen goods, which they exported to different countries. After their expulsion in the 15th century, by Ferdinand and Isabella, the Spaniards preserved these manufactures in part, and sedulously cherished their fine flocks; and knowing the incomparible advantage they had in them, their sovereigns, except in a few isolated instances, strictly prohibited their exportation.
History asserts that Henry VIII. of England, by permission of Charles V., imported 3,000 Spanish sheep; but of what kind is not mentioned, they having numerous varieties in Spain. If of the true Merino, it will explain the superior quality of the English middle-wools, the Ryeland, South Downs, and some others.
The first well-authenticated exportation of the Spanish Merino, was made to Sweden in 1723, by Alstroemer, which solved the problem of their capacity for sustaining their character, on rough fare and in a high northern latitude. Lasteyrie, who wrote fifty years after the experiment had been tried, speaks of their improvement, both in carcass and the quality and quantity of fleece.
The next exportation was made to Saxony, in 1765, and consisted of 105 rams and 114 ewes, but from what flocks they were taken, history nowhere mentions. A second exportation to that country was made in 1778, of 110 that were variously selected, from the best flocks in Spain. From these have descended the high-bred, silken-fleeced Saxons, whose wool stands confessedly without a rival.
In 1775, the Empress Maria Theresa imported 300 Merinoes into Germany, and placed them on the imperial farm in Hungary. In 1786, an importation was made into Denmark and her provinces; and again, in 1797, another flock of 300 was brought into the kingdom, and placed at Esserum, about eightleagues from Copenhagen. In 1786, 100 rams and 200 ewes were imported into Prussia, most of which were allowed to perish from neglect and disease; but their places were fully made up by later importations. The same year, 400 ewes and rams were selected from the choicest Spanish flocks, and placed on the royal farm of Rambouillet, in France, which laid the foundation of the celebrated flock which bears that name.
A small flock of inferior animals was clandestinely procured by George III., of England, in 1788, which attracted little attention. In 1791, a small but choice flock was presented to that monarch by the Cortes of Spain, which soon acquired high favor among many intelligent breeders. A part of these were kept pure, and their descendants furnished the superb flock of 700 Nigrettis, which procured for their owner, Mr. Trimmer, in 1829, the gold medal from the London Society of Arts. Others were mixed with different flocks in the kingdom, to the evident improvement of their fleeces.
Which resulted in the propagation of a pure breed,[2]was made by Chancellor Livingston, then minister at the court of Versailles, who sent two choice rams and ewes from the Rambouillet flock, in 1802, to Claremont, his country seat on the Hudson. In the latter part of the same year, Col. Humphreys, our minister in Spain, sent out nearly one hundred Merinoes, which were followed by more numerous flocks from the same and other sources. The largest importations of the Merino, however, were made through Mr. Jarvis of Vermont, in 1809, then U. S. Consul in Spain, and immediately thereafter. He first shipped, as he states, "200 Escurial, afterwards 1400 Paulars, 1700 Aqueirres, 100 Nigrettis, and about 200 Montarcos. 2700 Montarcos were sent out by a Spaniard and a Portuguese, and about 300 Guadaloupes by others; also 200 to 300 Paulars, by Gen. Downie, to Boston. Of the Montarco flock shipped by others, about 2500 came to Boston, Providence, New York, and other ports. All were imported in the latter part of 1809 and '10, and early in 1811, and were the only Leonese Transhumantes, if we include Humphreys' and Livingston's, (which I have no doubt were of the same stock,) that were ever shipped to the United States."