abstracts: botany 631 



BACTERIOLOGY.— r/?e bacterial flora of Roquefort cheese. Alice C. 

 Evans. Journ. Agr. Res. 13: 225-233. 1918. 



This paper reports the study of the bacterial flora of imported 

 Roquefort cheese as compared with the bacterial flora of experimental 

 cheese of that type made in the Dairy Division of the Department of 

 Agriculture. The experimental cheese differed from the imported in 

 being made of cow's milk and ripened in rooms artificially cooled and 

 moistened, whereas the imported cheese was made of sheep's milk 

 and ripened in natural caves. The two varieties of cheese are very 

 similar. The results of the study may be summarized as follows: 



The microorganisms essential for the manufacture and ripening of 

 Roquefort cheese are Streptococcus lacticus and PenicilUum roqueforti. 

 Streptococcus lacticus decomposes the lactose during the manufacture of 

 the cheese and thus produces the lactic acid necessary for the cheese 

 making. These organisms disappear from the cheese after about two 

 or three weeks, being killed by the high concentration of sodirnn chlorid. 

 The remaining flora of Roquefort cheese consists of cheese streptococci 

 and Bacterium hidgaricimi, organisms which are found in all kinds of 

 ripening cheese. These organisms do not have any significant part to 

 play in the ripening of Roquefort cheese. 



The cheese slime consists of characteristic types of micrococci, rod 

 forms, and yeast cells. The enzjnnes from the slime do not appear to 

 be essential to the ripening of the cheese. The flora of both the in- 

 terior and the slime of the experimental cheese was identical with the 

 flora of the interior and the slime of the imported cheese. 



If the maker of Roquefort cheese will inoculate properly with Strep- 

 tococcus lacticus and PenicilUum roqueforti, and provide the proper con- 

 dition of manufacture and ripening, he need have no other concern 

 about biological ripening agents. A. C. E. 



BOTANY. — Eupatorium urticaefolium as a poisonous plant. C. 



Dw^iGHT Marsh and A. B. Clawson, Journ. Agr. Res. 14: 699- 



715, pis. 52-55. 1918. White snakeroot or richweed (Eupatorium 



urticaefohum) as a stock-poisoning plant. C. Dwight Marsh 



and A. B. Claw^son. U. S. Dept. Agr. Bur. An. Ind. Circ. 26: 



1-7. 1918. 



Eupatorium urticaefolium is one of the plants that has been thought 



to be the cause of milk sickness, but published accounts of experimental 



work have been veiy contradictory. In this paper are detailed experi- 



