208 



Rkpokt of the Ouemical Depaktment of the 



clearly illustrate tlie influence of this factor. Cheeses, which 

 were made from the same milk, were placed in the curing-room 

 at 60° F. One cheese was kept on the shelf in the ordinary 

 manner, the air of the room containing from 75 to 80 per ct. of 

 all the moisture it could hold at G0° F. The other cheese was 

 placed under a bell-jar and kept in an atmosphere completely 

 saturated with moisture. The results secured by this treatment 

 are presented in the following table. The amount of moisture 

 in the fresh cheese was not determined and we start, therefore, 

 with the moisture in the cheese at two weeks. 



Table YII. — Loss of Moisture in Cheese Kept in Air Completely and 

 Partially Saturated with Moisture. 



Attention is called to the following points in connection with 

 this table: 



(1) In case of the cheese kept in air partially saturated with 

 moisture, there is a loss of moisture from the first, which at the 

 end of 15 months has reached the total of 11.14 lbs. per hundred 

 pounds of cheese. 



(2) In the cheese kept in a moisture-saturated atmovsphere, 

 there was practically no loss of moisture in the cheese, but at the 

 end of 2 months the moisture in the cheese had actually 

 increased and continued to increase steadily, until, at the end of 

 15 months, there had been an actual gain of 1.92 lbs. of moisture 

 per 100 lbs. of cheese. 



(3) The two cheeses containing the same amount of moisture 

 at the beginning were found to differ, at the end of 15 months, 

 13 per ct. in moisture, as the result of being kept in air contain- 

 ing different degrees of niui^lure. 



