Vermont Dairymen's Association. 129 



0.3 percent calcium chlorid, and i.i percent calcium sulphate or 

 gypsum. The magnesium and calcium chlorids have a bitter 

 taste. In the quantities ordinarily present they apparentl}' exert 

 no ill effects on fresh butter, but they do sometimes damage 

 storage goods. They seem to cause a slow decomposition of the 

 butter fat. The gypsum is not only undesirable as a diluent but 

 because it tends to cause salt to calve. Other things being equal, 

 a salt that is relatively free from these impurities is to be pre- 

 ferred. Other things may not be equal, however, for the size 

 of the grain, its shape, its apparent specific gravity and its solu- 

 bility are important factors. The finer the grain, the greater its 

 weight in a given volume and the more ready its solubility. Thus 

 in a series of trials of fine and coarse grained salts, the former 

 owing to greater solubility passed more readily out of the butter 

 during working and proved the less economical. An ideal butter 

 salt should be pure white, of a uniform, thin, flaky grain of 

 medium size, without ill odor, and be nearly free of the bitter salts 

 and dirt. An ideal cheese salt may be similarly described save 

 that the size of the grain may be larger. No one brand stands 

 first in all these respects. "There are others" than the one you 

 use. 



Wherein has cheese making practice been put upon a higher 

 plane by scientific investigation? 



1. The phenomena of the ripening processes are better under- 

 stood. 



2. Canned cheese, parafiined cheese and cheese prints have 

 been developed. 



The changes brought about by cheese ripening have been in 

 part determined within the past few years. Up to recent times 

 hypotheses were plenty, but facts few. It was thought that bac- 

 teria ripened cheese, but the process seems more likely to be at 

 best but in part bacterial. It is now deemed that the natural and 

 inherent enzymes of the fresh milk, — galactase and its associates, 

 — and the pepsin of the rennet extract, or the scale pepsin of the 

 drug stores wdiich is now used in lieu of rennet in some factories, 

 are also important factors ; that all three working together are 

 probably the main ripening agents, but that the environment of 

 the ripening cheese more than any other one thing gives char- 

 acter to the final product. 



A number of interesting points have been brought out of 

 late which must need be but barely referred to. The under- 

 lying reason for the hot iron test, the causes of slimy, slippery 

 curd, and of "leakiness,'' the rationale of the quick ripening and 

 the slow ripening cheese processes having been developed ; and 

 the relationships between temperature, moisture, varying amounts 



