The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1895-11-09
Cheese Box Making.
From the n. Y. sun.

from the n. \. sun.
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 cost of nearly $500, 900
annually 1t is not many years 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
i'll the handling. 1t was only factory made
cheese that received such protection, while
dairy cheese was sent to market destitute
Of any covering other than its own roughly
bandaged rind, which in most cases proved
invulnerable. Competition among manu-
facturers has changed all this, and at pres
ent the manufacture of boxes gives employ
ment to large number of hands and
necessitates the use of powerful and expen-
sive 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 thick
ness The waste of material was a most
serious objection to this plan, fully so per
cent of the timber going in sawdust. The
invention of the rotary cutting machine
has prevented this waste and at the same
time produced better hoop than the
sawed article The chief timber used in
making cheesbox hoops is the common
swamp elm. No other timber seems to
possess the same qualities of lghtness,
toughness and elasticity so requisite for
cheeseboxes as this once despised product
of American forests. The logs, after be-
ing cut in the proper lengths, generally 5
feet for an ordinary cheese box of 153 or
16 inches diameter, are thrown into long
vats filled with water, where they are boiled
from l 2 to 20 hours. The time required
to soften the timber, or cook it, as the op-
Grafton is called, varies according to the
size of the timber and the season. Large
logs require to be cooked longer than small
ones, particularly when the logs are frozen.
| 1t is not uncommon to find the center of
log still frozen after Is hours of boiling
Experience is the best guide in this part
of the business, and to know when the
timber is thoroughly cooked and not over
done is one of the things acquired only by
constant observation. When sufficiently
boiled the logs are lifted in iron grapples
from the vats and laid on skids, where the
bark is removed Then log is lifted by
a crane and swung into place in the ma
chine, where it is held in a horizontal
position by chucks or dogs that center it at
each end
In this position the log revolves like
roll of paper in printing press. The
knife which does the cutting is very heavy
and is bolted to heavy head called car
riage, which is fed forward by screws
toward the revolving log. In the most
approved machines the knife has an end or
oscillating as we'll as forward motion.
This reduces the strain on the machine
and permits the cutting of soft, unsound
and shaky hearted logs. As the knife
comes in contact with the timber, the in
equalities of the log are first shorn off and
gradually the log becomes perfectly round
and yields an unbroken sheet of lumber,
like the unwinding of roll of cloth.
venient lengths, which are passed under
dividing knives that cut them into uniform
widths corresponding with the required
depth of the box.
If the boxes are to be made up at once
the hoops are bent around iron cylinders
to give them the form of the box, after
which the bottom is pressed in and nailed
in place, Comparatively few boxes are
put together in the larger mills. In most
cases the product is dried and shipped to
the cheese manufacturing centers, where
the boxes are completed. The boxes in
the finished state are too bulky for ecOno-
mical handling. An ordinary freight car
will not contain more than 500 complete
boxes, while ), 900 can be carried if shipped
in the bale.
The remnants which are not 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 common size will hold cheese of
from 60 to 65 pounds. Such box is 10
inches deep and 159 inches in diameter.
This is the size of cheese most in demand
for export The size for home consump
ton is as a rule much smaller and requires
a box from to inches deep, but of the
same diameter as the other.
Various kinds of timber are used to form
the heads of the box, but elm is the ac-
cepted material for the hoops Owing to
pecuharities of the soil, the timber in some
localities is inclined to be shaky, the checks
or shakes running around the log. Such
timber and following the grain of the timber
useless when the hoops were sawed, but was
in the rotary process much of it can be
turned to good account The bulk of the
elm timber used in this business is brought
in from Canada.
The western peninsula of Ontario lying
north of Lake Erie contained one of the
largest tracts of elm timber on the CONT
nent 1t has been greatly depleted in re-
cent years. Logs are taken out in winter
when the swamps are frozen and are skid
ed near the railways or on the lake shore
The bulk of them are taken to the mills
by water in tow of powerful steam tugs,
Protection from lightning.
d