Arizona silver belt., 1895-08-17
CHEESE-BOX MAKING.
Vast Numbers Turned Out Yearly
 by Expensive Machinery.
Competition Among Manufacturers Has Created a Great Indusrry-IIow
 tho Boxes Are Put Together,

An idea of tho 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 half a million dollars annually It 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. It 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 bandagcd rind, which in most cases proved invulner- able, Competition among manutactur- CTS has changed all this, and at present the manufacture of boxes gives employ ment to large number of hands and neccssitates the use of powerful and expensive machinery,
 It 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 blanks about onc-tifth of an inch in thickness. The waste of mate rial was 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 a 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 vatS filled 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 cooked longer than small ones, particularly when the logs are frozen It 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 stant observation. When sufficiently boiled the logs are lifted in iron grap- pies from the vats 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 horizontal position by chucks or dogs that center it at each end.
 In this position the log revolves like roll of paper in printiug press. The knife which does the cutting is very neavy and is bolted to heavy head called 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 a 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 iuequali- ties of the log are first shOrn off, and gradually the log becomes perfectly round and yields an unbrokeu sheet of lumber, like the uuwiudiug of a roll of cloth This sheet of wood is broken off in convenient lengths, which are passed under dividing knives that cut them into uniform widths, correspond ing 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 man ufacturing ccntcrs, where the boxes are completed. The boxes in the finished state are too bulky for econom- ical handling.
 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 com mon size will hold a cheese of from sixty to sixty-fvc pounds Such box is ten inches deep and fifteen and one half inches in diameter This is the size of cheese most in demand for ex- port The size for home consumption is as a rule much smaller and requires a box from five to six inches deep, but of the same diameter as the other Various kinds of timber are used to form the heads of the box, but clm is the accepted material for the hoops Owing to pcculiaritics of the soil. the timber in some localities is inclined to be shaky, the checks or shakes running around the log and following the grain of the timber. Such timber was use less when the hoops were sawed, but 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 continent It has been greatly de- pleted in recent years. The logs are taken out in winter when the swamps are frozen and are slsidded 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.
 RnnKG AMI WRITERS