340 SCIENCE AND PRACTICE OF CHEESE-MAKING 



Summarizing our results, we find that, other con- 

 ditions being uniform, (i) the water-soluble proteins 

 and derivatives in cheese increase, on an aver- 

 age, very closely in proportion to increase of tem- 

 perature; (2) from the average of our results, there 

 is an increase of 0.5 per cent of these water-soluble 

 compounds for an increase of one degree of tem- 

 perature between the limits of ^2° and 70° F. ; (3) 

 the amino acids and ammonia are formed in the cheese 

 more abundantly at higher temperatures and ac- 

 cumulate in the cheese, while the other water-soluble 

 compounds do not appear to be regularly influenced 

 by temperature in the early stages of ripening, but 

 after some months they decrease in quantity with 

 increase of temperature. 



Moisture and cheese-ripening. — In order to study 

 the effect of moisture in cheese upon the chemical 

 changes taking place in the nitrogen compounds, 

 two sets of cheeses were made for comparison, 4 

 different cheeses in each set being made under 

 parallel conditions. One lot was covered with 

 melted paraffin, in order to retard the evaporation 

 of water from the cheese ; the others were left in 

 the usual condition. These cheeses were all kept 

 in the same curing-room at a temperature of 55° 

 F. In the tabulated results following, we give the 

 averages obtained with the 4 different cheeses in each 

 set of experiments, those that were covered with 

 paraffin being indicated as 2, the others as I. 



The cheeses covered with paraffin had somewhat 

 less water when made, but the others lost water 

 more rapidly, so that at the end of 3 months their 

 water content was about the same. After this the 



