New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 29 



Department. It has been proved that rennet is a peptic enzyme and 

 as such is able to digest the paracasein monolactate of cheese to some 

 extent, but it does not appear to form the compounds that produce 

 the flavor of cheese. 



Conditions affecting chemical changes in cheese-ripening. — In this 

 work a strictly chemical study has been made of the more prominent 

 conditions that influence the changes taking place in cheese during 

 the ripening process. The factors studied are such as time, tempera- 

 ture, moisture content of cheese, size of cheese, varying quantities of 

 salt, different amounts of rennet, and acid. The facts discovered 

 have an important practical bearing upon the conditions of the manu- 

 facture of cheese and of cheese-ripening. 



Experiments in curing cheese at different temperatures, zmth and 

 zvithont a covering of paraffin. — This was a most valuable piece of 

 work, carried on in cooperation with the U. S. Department of Agri- 

 culture. The results are very striking and may be briefly summarized 

 as follows : 



(i) The loss of cheese is less at low temperatures, and therefore 

 there is more cheese to sell. 



(2) The commercial quality of cheese cured at low temperatures 

 is better and this results in giving the cheese a higher market value. 



(3) Cheese can be held a long time at low temperatures without 

 impairment of quality, 



(4) By utilizing the combination of paraffining cheese and curing 

 it at low temperatures, the greatest economy can be effected. 



Studies of phosphorus. — The status of phosphorus in certain vege- 

 table and animal materials has been studied. A method has been 

 developed by which the amounts of organic and inorganic phosphorus 

 can be differentiated. This work has been preliminary to a proposed 

 study of the metabolism of phosphorus in the animal body. 



