The climax. [volume] (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1887-1897, 1895-09-11
CHEESE-BOX MAKING.
Vast Numbers Turned Out Yearly
by Expensive Machinery.
Competition Among Manufacturers Has
Created a Great Industry-IIOw
the Boxes Are Put
Together.

An idea of the magnitude of the
cheese industry in this country is given
by the fact that the boxes in which the
cheese is shipped represent a cost of
nearly half a 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 a 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 its own roughly bandaged rind,
which in most cases proved invulner-
able. Competition among manufacture
ers has changed all this, and at present
the manufacture of boxes gives employ
ment to a 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-ffth 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 MAX
! 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 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-
slant observation. When sufficiently
boiled the logs are lifted in iron Crap
Piles from the watts and laid on skids,
where the bark is removed. Then a
log is lifted by crane and swung into
place in the machine, where it is held
in a horizontal position by chueks or
dogs that center it at each end.
In this position the log revolves like
a roll of paper in a printing press. The
knife which does the cutting is very
heavy and is bolted to a heavy head
called a carriage, which is fed for
ward by screws toward the revolving
log In the most approved machines
the knife has an end or oscillating as
well as forward motion. This reduces
the strain on the machine and permits
the cutting Of soft. unsound and shaly-
hearted logs. As the knife comes in
contact with the timber the inequali-
ties Of the log are first shorn off. and