FINE POINTS IN CHEESE MAKING. 



173 



country from east to west run these belts of productive and profita- 

 ble limits for the different branches of hnsbandry. The sugar l)elt 

 lies low and narrow, far down to the south. Then comes the cotton, 

 and so with others. Stock husbandry, too, finds limits, or rather 

 graduations in the present method, from the great breeding plains 

 of Texas and the southwest, to the ripening and fattening ranges of 

 a more northern section. Superincumbent upon this last, lies the 

 tract where dairying stands eminent and unrivalled. 



Foremost of topics, as a theme of vital consequence, is the ques- 

 tion of the food supply for these millions who fill the land and whose 

 numbers are constantlv increasing. For its solution men are eivino; 

 their best thought and most untiring energy, and each section will 

 find its profit and reward of endeavor as it shall most wisely and 

 economically devote its agricultural efforts to the production of those 

 staple articles which are peculiarly its own. 



The climate, varying with the increasing latitude, governs the 

 possible choice. To one section is given a lavishness of oppor- 

 tunity wholly denied to another. Nature has given to Maine, in 

 common with three or four other northeastern States, the unrivalled 

 facilities for high grade dairying. Most searching and critical tests 

 have proved that, after passing New York, no other State westward 

 can produce the best of cheese or butter. At the same time it is 

 found that the demand for these best and peculiar grades is con- 

 stantly increasing, most notably that for cheese. 



With the increase of wealth among the people arises a gi-eater 

 demand for the choice articles of food. The home trade can now 

 pay more for choice cheese, and the best lines of canned goods, 

 than the exporters. 



That this conclusion of peculiar fitness of the northeast for cheese 

 making is not mere assumption, and destined as a fashion again to 

 pass avva}' is the fact that it is all based upon inunutability. 



Scientific theorizing long since concluded that the coagulation and 

 ripening of caseine and curd should take place under comjiaratively 

 even conditions, and at moderately low degrees of temperature. 

 Extremes of either heat or cold would be equally undesirable, and 

 sharp alternations would result in loss of high merit. On these 

 grounds, New York for many years rested liar claims for supre- 

 macy, until the Western States entered the lists, one after another, 

 and, with loud advocacy of their own merits, seemed about to upset 

 all that had been previously regarded as established upon such 



