Parmesan cheese has long been famous for its richness and flavor; the following mode of manufacture is described in the Annales de Chemie. The size of these cheeses varies from sixty to 180 pounds, according to the number of cows in each dairy. During the heat of summer cheese is made every day, but in the cooler months milk will keep longer, and the cheese is made every other day. The summer cheese, which is the best, is made of the evening milk, after having been skimmed in the morning and at noon. Both kinds of milk are poured together into a caldron capable of holding about 130 gallons, of the shape of an inverted bell, and suspended on the arm of a lever so as to be moved off and on the fire at pleasure. In this caldron the milk is gradually heated to the temperature of about 120°; it is now removed from the fire, and kept quiet for five or six minutes. When all internal motion has ceased, the rennet is added; this substance is composed of the stomach of a calf, fermented together with wheaten meal and salt; and the method of using it is to tie a piece, of the size of a hazel nut, in a piece of linen cloth, and steep it in the milk, squeezing it from time to time; a sufficiency of rennet soon passes through the cloth into the milk, which is now to be well stirred, and afterwards left to rest that it may coagulate. In about an hour the coagulation is complete, and then the milk is again put over the fire, and raised to a temperature of about 145 degrees.

During the time it is heating the mass is briskly agitated, till the curd separates in small lumps; part of the whey is then taken out, and a small portion of saffron is added to the remainder in order to color it. When the curd is thus broken sufficiently small, nearly the whole of the whey is taken out and two pailfuls of cold water is poured in; the temperature is thus lowered so as to enable the dairyman to collect the curd, by passing a cloth underneath it and gathering it up at the corners; the curd is now pressed into a frame of wood like a bushel without a bottom, placed on a solid table and covered by a round piece of wood, having a great stone or weight on the top. In the course of the night it cools, assumes a firm consistence, and parts with the whey; the next day one side is rubbed with salt, and the succeeding day the cheese is turned and the other side is rubbed with salt in the same manner as before. This alternate salting of each side is practised for about forty days; after this period the outer crust of the cheese is pared off, and the fresh surface is coated with linseed oil. The convex sides are then colored red with arnotto, and the cheese is fit for sale.

The Stilton cheeses, called the Parmesan of England, are usually made in cylindrical vats, and weigh from six to twelve pounds each. Immediately after they are made they should be put into boxes made exactly to fit them, as they are so extremely rich, that, without this precaution, they would be apt to bulge out and break asunder. In these boxes they should be daily turned, and kept two years; they are then fit for sale. Some make them in a net like a cabbage-net, so that

It is

are never so good as the others, having a thicker coat, and wanting the rich flavor and mellowness of the others. The manufacture of these cheeses is not confined to Stilton and its neighbourhood; as many other persons in Huntingdonshire, and also Rutland and Northampton shires, make a similar sort, sell them for the same price, and give them the name of Stilton cheeses. observed by Mr. Hazard, that, though the farmers about Stilton are remarkable for the cleanliness of their dairies, they take very little pains with the rennet; for if they did they would not have so many faulty and unsound cheeses. The inhabitants of other countries might make as good cheese as that of Stilton if they would adhere to the same plan, which is this:-They make a cheese every morning, and to this meal of new milk they add the cream taken from that which was milked the night before. This, and the age of their cheeses, it is said, are the only reasons why they are preferred to others, their land not being in any respect superior to that of other countries.

In the Bath Papers, Mr. Hazard gives the following receipt for making rennet. 'When the maw-skin is well prepared and fit for the purpose, three pints or two quarts of soft water, clean and sweet, should be mixed with salt, wherein should be put sweet-brier, rose-leaves and flowers, cinnamon, cloves, mace, and, in short, almost every sort of spice and aromatic that can be procured; and if these are put into two quarts of water, they must boil gently till the liquor is reduced to three pints, and care should be taken that this liquid is not smoked; it should be strained clear from the spices, &c., and, when not warmer than milk from the cow, it should be poured upon the vell or maw; a lemon may then be sliced into it, when it may remain a day or two; after which it should be strained again and put into a bottle, where, if well corked, it will keep good for twelve months, or more: it will smell like a perfume, and a small quantity of it will turn the milk, and give the cheese a pleasing flavor.'

The method of making green cheese we should not, perhaps, omit. In a cheese of this sort, of about ten or twelve pounds weight, an infusion is made by steeping about two handfuls of sage, and one of marigold leaves, with a little parsley, after being bruised, one night in a proper quantity of milk. In the morning the greened milk is strained off, and mixed with about one-third of the whole quantity to be run. The green and the white milks are then run separately, keeping the two curds distinct, until they are ready for vatting. The mixing of them depends on the fancy of the maker. In some cases the two are connected together, blending them in an even and intimate manner; in others, the green curd is broken down into irregular fragments, or cut out in irregular figures by means of proper tins. In the operation of vatting, the fragments or figures are placed on the outsides. The bottom of the vat is first set with them, crumbling the white or yellow curd among them. As the vat fills, others are placed at the edges, and the remainder buried flush with the top. In the management

afterwards, the same plan is pursued as those which we have already described for common

cheese.

A dairy house should have a northern aspect, if possible, and good ventilation. The regulation of temperature may be accomplished on the plan suggested by Dr. Anderson, of having double walls and roofs; or by means of hollow walls; and for common purposes by the walls having a vacuity left, of eight or ten inches in width, between the lath and plaster. According to the nature of the business to be carried on in them, these buildings will be of course regulated, both in regard to their size and the number of their conveniences: as whether they are used for butter, cheese, or milk; the number of cows which are kept, &c. In the Gloucester dairy houses twenty feet by sixteen are the usual dimensions for forty cows; and thirty feet by forty for 100

COWS.

A butter dairy should consist of three rooms, or apartments: namely, a milk room, a churning room with necessary apparatus, and a room for the different utensils, and the cleaning and airing them in, when it may be requisite. The cheese dairy should, in the same manner, be composed of three rooms; one for the reception of the milk; another for the scalding and pressing of the cheese; and a third for the purpose of salting it in. In addition, there ought to be a room for the stowing of the cheese, which may conveniently be a loft made over the dairy. It is frequently at a distance, which is inconvenient and troublesome.

The milk dairy only requires two good rooms, one for the reception of the milk, and another for the purpose of serving it out in, and that of scalding, cleaning, and airing the different utensils.

The utensils of a cheese dairy are, the cheese tub, in which the curd is broken, and prepared; the cheese-knife, commonly a thin spatula of wood or iron, for the purpose of cutting or breaking down the curd; the cheese-cloth, a piece of thin gauze, in which the cheese is placed in the press; a circular cheese-board; a strong wooden vat, and cheese-press.

The last article is generally constructed with a common wooden screw, though sometimes a large weight is used. The diagram represents a

very commodious one. Churns are almost endless in their variety of shapes, and supposed recommendations. Our article CHURN exhibits an improved mode of working this important utensil. We may add, in conclusion, that Mr. Dicas of Liverpool has lately invented a lactometer for ascertaining the richness of milk from its specific gravity, and its degree of warmth taken by a thermometer, on comparing its specific gravity with its warmth.'

It is a glass tube a foot long, with a funnel at top; the upper two inches being marked in small divisions, just under the funnel; when the instrument is filled to the height of one foot with milk, the depth of cream it yields is noted by the gradations on the upper part.

An invention of a similar kind has been noticed by the Highland Society of Scotland, in their Report for 1816: Mrs. Lovi's aereometric beads, by which the specific gravity of the milk is tried first when new milked, and again when the cream is removed. When milk is tried as soon as it cools,' observes this Report,' say to 60°, and again, after it has been thoroughly skimmed, it will be found that the skimmed milk is of considerably greater gravity; and as this increase depends upon the separation of the lighter cream, the amount of the increase, or the difference between the specific gravity of the fresh and skimmed milk, will bear proportion to, and may be employed as a measure of, the relative quantities of the oily matter or butter contained in different milks. The specific gravity of skimmed milk depends both on the quantity of the saccharo-saline matters, and of the curd. To estimate the relative quantities of curd, and by that determine the value of milk for the purpose of yielding cheese, it is only required to curdle the skim milk, and ascertain the specific gravity of the whey. The whey will, of course, be found of lower specific gravity than the skimmed milk, and the number of degrees of difference affords a measure of the relative quantities of the curd. According to this hypothesis, the aereometric beads may be employed to ascertain the qualities of milk, relatively both to the manufacture of butter and cheese.' But neither of these inventions, though in themselves ingenious, have been extensively used.

The fixtures of a respectable dairy are, a copper boiler in the scalding-room; benches and shelves in this room and the cheese-room; a bench or table about two feet wide round the milk-room; and a pump in the centre of the latter.

The utensils of a butter dairy are, pails; sieves of hair cloth, or silver-wire cloth for straining the milk; milk dishes or coolers; an ivory or bone cream-knife, and skimming dishes of willow or ivory; bowls; barrel, or other milk churns; butter-makers; and a portable rack for drying dishes in the air; tubs, &c.

DAIS, in botany, a genus of the monogynia order, and decandria class of plants; natural order, thirty-first, vepreculæ : involucrum tetraphyllous: COR. quadrifid, or quinquefid: FRUIT monospermous berry. Species three, natives of South Sea Isles.

DAI'SY, n. s. Į Sax. dægereze day's-eye; DAY'SIED, adj. or, as Mr. Thomson conjectures, dah's, i. e., does-eye. Minshen says, from daw, to divide, because of the divisions of the leaves; but this etymology seems too profound for the name of a common flower.

A Frankelin was in this compagnie ;
White was his berd as is the dayesie
Of his complexion he was sanguin.

Chaucer. Prol. to Cant. Tales,
When daisies pied, and violets blue,
And lady smocks all over white,
And cuckoo buds of yellow hue,
Do paint the meadows much bedight.

Set GLOBULARIS.

DALBERGIA, in botany, a genus of the octandria order, and diadelphia class of plants. There are two filaments or stamina quadrifid at top. The fruit is pedicellated, not gaping; leguminous, membrano-compressed, and bearing seeds. Seven species; six India plants.

DALE, n. s. Teut. thaal; Ang.-Saxon, Spanish, Belgic, and Irish, dal, from dalen, descendere, o descend. A valley or low place.

As when old Father Nilus gins to swell, With timely pride above the Aegyptian vale, His fattie waves doe fertile slime outwell, And overflow each plaine and lowly dale.

Spenser. Faerie Queene.

Stand ye secure, ye safer shrubs below, In humble dales, whom heavens do not despight; Nor angry clouds conspire your overthrow, Envying at your too disdainful hight.

Bishop Hall. Defiance to Envy.

Before the downfall of the fairy state, This dale, a pleasing region, not unblest, This dale possessed they, and had still possessed.

He steals along the lonely dale.

Tickell.

Byron.

Thomson's Spring. Enough of Grongar, and the shady dales, Of winding Towy, Merlin's fabled haunt, I sung inglorious. DALEA, in botany, a genus of plants of the diadelphia class and decandria order. Stamina five or ten, with the wings growing to their column, and united without separate filaments: leguminous: SEED one. Species fourteen, natives of North and South America.

DALECARLIA, or STORA-KOPPARBERG, as it has been recently named, is an extensive province of Sweden, bounded on the west by Norway, on the north by Herjedal, on the east by Helsingland, and on the south by Westmannland. It contains nearly 1300 English square miles, and about 125,000 inhabitants. Though its general aspect is hilly, the mountains are of

little elevation, except in the neighbourhood of Norway; the greater part of the province is finely diversified with hills, dales, and lakes. It contains also two large rivers, the Dal and the Ljusne. In the south fine rye and barley fields meet the eye; and the potatoe is cultivated with some success; but the perpetual changes of the property and badness of the roads have been formidable obstacles to improvement. Limetrees, elms, and maples, are found growing here nearly under the sixty-second degree of latitude. Dalecarlia has its chief riches, however, in its copper and iron mines, the chief of which (of copper) are at Fahlun and Afvestad. At the beginning of the present century the iron mines employed seventy-two smelting-furnaces, and fifty-six forges; the total annual produce being about 113,000 cwt. Sulphur is likewise found; and at Elfvedal are quarries of porphyry. The chief towns are Fahlun, Hedemora, and Soter. The Dalecarlians are of noble make and appearance, and have long been celebrated for their love of liberty. During the struggles of Gustavus Vasa for the crown, they obtained their chief privileges, and have since distinguished have imbibed from these circumstances much of themselves on similar occasions. They seem to the spirit of faction; and they have great contempt for the other Swedes.

DALECHAMPIA, in botany, a genus of the monadelphia order, and monœcia class of plants; natural order thirty-eighth, tricoccæ. Male involucrum, common and quadripartite: CAL. hexaphyllous; COR. none; nectarium laminated or scaly; the stamina monadelphous or coalited at the base, and polyandrous or numerous Female involucrum, common and triphyllous; style one: CAPS. tricoccous. Species two, viz. 1. D. scandens, a native of Jamaica, and a climbing plant which rises to a considerable height, and is remarkable for nothing but having its leaves armed with bristly hairs, which sting the hands of those who unwarily touch them. 2. D. Gorolata, a native of New Granada.

DALGARNO (George), a learned Scottish writer of the seventeenth century, was born at Aberdeen, and projected a plan for a universal language, in a work entitled Ars Signorum, Vulgo Character Universalis et Lingua Philosophica, London 1661, 8vo. This exhibits a classification, as the author and his admirers state, of all possible ideas, and a selection of characters adapted to them. He admits only seventeen classes of ideas, and uses the letters of the Latin alphabet, with two Greek characters. His plan resembles that of bishop Wilkins. He was the author also of Didascalophus, or the Deaf and Dumb Man's Tutor. Oxford, 1680, 8vo.

DALIN (Olof Von), a Swedish historian and poet, born at Winberga in Holland in 1708, was designed for the medical profession, which he abandoned. In 1735 he published a weekly paper, called The Swedish Argus, which gave great satisfaction to the diet, and he was rewarded with the situation of librarian at Stockholm. He has been termed the father of Swedish poetry. His two chief poems are, The Liberty of Sweden; and Brunhilda, a tragedy. In 1744 he was en