FINE POINTS IN CHEESE MAKING. • J79 



acid state before the palate shows the least siisceptibilit}^ to its 

 coming. A scrupulous and exacting maker who has developed his 

 sense of smell to this degree will have a curious experience with 

 Brown, Jones and Eobinson, in the course of the season. Their 

 milk is rejected from time to time, when to their obtuse faculties it 

 is the emljodiment of perfection ; yea, even they take it home, and 

 avow that, for three or four days, it is still in all its virgin purit}- 

 and sweetness. A fine sense of smell is the maker's sheet anchor. 

 If he has it not, all hope of success is fallacious. Onl}- guess work 

 and jumping from one point to another are the available resources. 

 Probably a deficiency in this respect has caused the most of the loss 

 in cheese making in the State of Maine, for, not onl}' with the milk, 

 to detect that first whiff of the acid which is the avant courier of all 

 the train of sourness, but, as well in testing the vat subsequently', 

 the nostrils must be on the alert to make certain. The hot iron and 

 numerous expedients are only guesses. 



It is admitted that milk may seem quite good after the cheese 

 maker has turned it awa}' ; but the ditiiculty with such a mess, for 

 him, is that it will not stand the application of those two most pow- 

 erful agents known to the chemists, heat and acid, whose aid he 

 must daily invoke. Put Jones' milk under the influence of heat 

 and the seeds of trouble planted there through his carelessness or 

 incompetency soon put forth vigorous life and growth. By the law 

 of the milk's nature all the rest of the mass in contact soon assimi- 

 lates to it in condition. P^ven so large a mess of good milk will 

 not suffice to cover up or redeem the quality of a small bad mess ; 

 but, one small addition of spoiled milk will ruin the whole, even in 

 the proportion of one gallon in six hundred. 



So if Robinson's milk gives off the sure token of the dcA-eloping 

 of lactic acid already begun, the rennet principle, a powerful acid 

 of itself, swiftW accelerates the souring tendency, and the two 

 together overleap all bounds, as they hurry the curd on to dryness 

 and insipidity. 



Heat and acid, both good servants but bad masters, must be used 

 under the firm control of a maker who knows their strength, and 

 knows wiuit milk is fit to be put under their influence. The nose is 

 the only appliance needed for the handling of tainted milk. Appa- 

 ratus men advertise machinery with which to make up such milk, 

 and authorities are widelj' quoted this winter in favor of a coml)ina- 

 tiou said to furnish peculiar facilities for such business. Such 



