I`m a brand new cello player and I was never instructed how much rosin to put on the bow before I play. I imagined it to be a clear sticky substance, and instead it goes on kind of like a powder. I can`t tell from looking at the bow how much i`ve applied and i can`t tell from looking at the cube of rosin either.
Also is rosin harmful at all to the strings? When I play, they get a white coating that`s a little stubborn to get off and I`m having some trouble with getting a squeeky raspy sound, could this be caused partly from too much or too little rosin?

Before you play you have to rosin your bow (of course).4 times(from
top to bottom counts as one)should be enough.If you take a piece of an old towel and wipe of the rosin off the strings and the instrument (when you finished playing)to avoid the sticky substance that accumulates after a while.Ir`s completely normal to end up with "white stuff" on the strings as long as you wipe it off after you play. Too much rosin on the bow is NOT harmful.The "squeeky" sounds has little to do with the rosin it happens when you play with the bow too slowly or that you are playing too close to the bridge.

Thanks so much daniela. I think that I had been using WAY too much rosin, I was running the bow across it maybe 20 times each time I played and wasn`t cleaning it off afterwards. Now my problem is the god aweful blisters that I`m getting on my fingers from the strings!

if u r getting blisters and calises thats good u will get used to it soon enough

the running it up and down 4 times thing might work for some people but rosin is REALLY case specific
some rosins can come off on the bow more easily...u might already have enough rosin on ur bow...etc.
so...the best all around way to tell is to take a fingernail (the thumbnail works well, but it doesn`t really matter), put it down close to the frog and run it across the bowhairs.
a pretty good cloud of white powder should come off. if it looks like there`s WAY too much comin` off...then u already have enough (or too much) rosin on you`re bow. if there`s almost no powder coming off...then put a bit more on and check it again with the fingernail. this is the universal way to tell and most good string players use this technique...now u can look like a virtuoso cellist!!!!

put rosin on the bow and on all of the strings

well, if you go to your local music store, you can get a cake of rosin for about $10 maybe less.