Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1895-08-15
CHEESE-BOX MAKING.
Vast Numbers Turned Out Yearly
by Expensive Machinery.
Competition Among Manufacturers Has
Created Great Industry-How
the Boxes Are Put
Together.

cheese is shipped represent cost OF
nearly half million dollars annually.
1t Is not many years, says the New
York Sun, since cheese was shipped in
any kind of barrel or box which would
hold from one to half dozen good
sized forms, packed in straw to keep
them from being bruised or broken in
the handling. 1t was only factory
made cheese that received such protec-
ton, while dairy cheese was sent to
market destitute of any covering other
than it's own roughly bandaged rind,
which in most cases proved invulner-
able. Competition among manufactur-
ers has changed all this, and at present
the manufacture of boxes gives employ
ment to large number of hands and
necessitates the use of powerful and
expensive machinery.
1t was customary in the early days of
the business to saw the hoops, as the
large body of the box is called, out of
the log in planks about one-fifth of an
inch in thickness. The waste of mate
rial was a most serious objection to this
plan, fully fifty per cent. of the timber
going in sawdust. The invention of
the rotary cutting machine has pre-
vented this waste and at the same time
produced better hoop than the sawed
article. The chief timber used in mak-
ing cheese-box hoops is the common
swamp elm. No other timber seems
to possess the same qualities of light
ness, toughness and elasticity, so re-
quisite for cheese boxes, as this once
despised product of American forests.
The logs, after being cut in the proper
lengths, generally five feet for an ordi-
nary cheese box of fifteen and half
or sixteen inches diameter, are thrown
into long watts filed with water, where
they are boiled from fifteen to twenty
hours. The time required to soften the
timber, or cook it, as the operation is
called, varies according to the size of
the timber and the season. Large logs
require to be cook ed longer than small
ones, particularly when the logs are
frozen. 1t is not uncommon to find the
center of a log still frozen after fifteen
hours of boiling. Experience is the
best guide in this part of the business,
and to know when the timber is thor
oughly cooked and not overdone is one
of the things acquired only by con-
stant observation. When sufficiently
boiled the logs are lifted in iron Crap
Piles from the vats and laid on skids,
where the bark is removed. Then a
log is lifted by a crane and swung into
place in the machine, where it is held
in horizontal position by chucks or
dogs that center it at each end
In this position the log revolves like
roll of paper in a printing press. The
knife which does the cutting is very
heavy and is bolted to heavy head
called a carriage, which is fed for
ward by screws toward the revolving
log. In the most annroved macbines
the knife has an end or oscillat;ng as
we'll as n forward motion This radnoos
the strain on the macbine and ,or,,,i+s
the cutting of soft unsound and sbal,v-
hearted logs As the knife comes n
contact with the timber the ineou,li-
ties of the loo are first sborn of ord
gradually the loo becomes norfectl,,
round and y;alds m rnbrol,or shoot -
lumber. like the unvind;no ~ rolI -
cloth This sheet of voo5 10 hro,,o,,
off in conven;or+ ,an,ths It'll 49,.
nassed under dividing l,nivos tbat o,,t
tbem into uniform ,y;d+bs oor,as,,o,,a
inp with tho reouired dentb ~ tha ho~
If the boxas are Ia ho ,,ada 49,, =.
once the hoons are bent around iron
cylinders to give them the form of tho
box after which the bottou ;s nrossod
in and nailed in Mace ComnarativeIv
few boxes are nut togetber in tbo
larger mills In most cases the nrodrct
is dried and Skinned To the cbeese man
ufacturinp centers where the boxes
are comnleted The boxos IN tha
6nisbcd state are too bu,l,y Tor .ooror,
;cal handling
The remnants which are no, wide
enough for hoops are used for the cover
band and for the narrow band that
goes around the bottom of the box
The boxes vary in size both as regards
depth and diameter. The most com
mon size will hold a cheese of from