AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY AND GEOLOGY. 201 



accident, the English make use of a powder, which is sold under the name of cheese-powder; 

 it is composed of a pound of nitre and one ounce of powdered Armenian bole intimately 

 mixed. Before salting the cheese, and while it is about being placed in the press, they rub 

 it with an ounce of this mixture ; a stronger dose would produce a bad effect. 



The part that the salt plays is very important. We know, indeed, that the caseine in the dry 

 state exists in an indefinite condition; but then it possesses only a weak flavor, and not agree- 

 able. The addition of the salt on the one hand, and the preparation or perfection in the 

 storehouse on the other — operations which require the greatest care and vigilance — succeed 

 in procuring a gentle fermentation, or a gradual reaction between the elementary substances 

 of the cheese. This reaction proceeds so much the more rapidly as the cheese is softer and 

 as the place is warmer and more moist. In proportion as the fermentation has been gentle, 

 so much the more is the flavor of the cheese sweet and agreeable. It is at this precise 

 moment, when the reaction between the elements has produced combinations agreeable to the 

 taste, that it is necessary to perfect the cheese : sooner than this it is not finished ; later, it is 

 in a state of decomposition more or less advanced. When the cheese is in the right condition, 

 it is put in a place cool and not too moist, in a good cellar which does not contain any liquor 

 in fermentation ; those where wine will keep well are equally good for cheese, but the two 

 together in the same cellar will mutually exercise a bad influence. 



Some cheeses with soft and fine paste are put in boxes of fir or beech. By closing these 

 boxes tightly, and giving them a coat or two of paint, the cheeses will be preserved for a 

 longer time and in a better condition. Chaptal and others claim that cheese after transporta- 

 tion is never so good as when it is just taken from the cellars. The fact is, it decomposes 

 during its transportation, and it is for this reason that in a tight varnished box the cheese 

 will retain those qualities which constitute its excellence. 



The cheeses of Holland are usually covered with a coating of linseed-oil varnish: this 

 preparation is doubtless one of the principal causes of their preservation on long voyages ; 

 their small bulk may also be adduced as a reason. 



The insects which attack cheeses are — 1. The flesh worm or cheese-mite, (acarus siro,) which 

 devours them when partly dried. These animals are so much the more dangerous, because 

 they hatch beneath the crust, whence they spread throughout the interior, causing great 

 injury. When one is careful to brush the cheeses frequently, to wipe them with a cloth, to 

 wash with boiling water the shelves on which they lie, one can protect himself against these 

 mites. But the most certain Way is, after having rubbed the cheeses with a brine, to let 

 them dry, and smear them over with sweet oil. It is in this way that they treat Gruyere 

 cheese when it is attacked by this destructive insect. 



2. The larvae of the gilded green fly, (musca cesar,) of the common fly, (musca domestica,) 

 and above all of the fly of putrefaction, (musca putris.) These larvse introduce themselves 

 into the cheese and make ravages. The presence of these vermicular insects, which denotes 

 an advanced state of putrefaction, excites much repugnance with the great number of con- 

 sumers ; some persons, on the contrary, prefer the cheese in this state, because it is then 

 stronger and of a more pungent flavor. 



We can destroy all these animals by vinegar, the vapor of burning sulphur, or by washes 

 of chloride of lime. When the storehouse contains these insects in abundance, take up the 

 cheeses, and scrape and wash the shelves with water holding in solution chloride of lime ; then 

 scrub at the same time the floor, and apply to the walls a coating of whitewash. When the 

 cheese-room is dry, replace the cheeses, which have been previously washed with a weak solu- 

 tion of chloride of lime, dried, wiped with a cloth or scraped, if they need it, and finally 

 rubbed, as has been said, with a cloth soaked in oil. 



If the cheeses have arrived at an advanced state of decomposition, they are put in powdered 

 charcoal, mixed with a small quantity of chloride of soda, which destroys their offensive 

 odor, and haste must be made to finish their manufacture before they become entirely putrid. 

 As to mould, this can be prevented by scraping the cheese, by brushing it, and by rubbing it 

 with the oil. 



To give to new Gloucester cheese the taste and appearance of old cheese, with a probe we 

 take from the two sides and centre — penetrating as far as the middle in each case — cylinders 



