PREFACE 



CERTAIN products we associate with the manufactures 

 of the household, so familiar and of such long standing 

 that we do not think of them as requiring investigation 

 or any special support of science. The older ones of us 

 look back on cheese as an ancient home product; yet 

 the old-fashioned hard strong kind has given place to 

 many named varieties, some of them bearing little resem- 

 blance to the product of the kitchen and the buttery. 

 We have analyzed the processes; discovered micro- 

 organisms that hinder or help; perfected devices and 

 machines; devised tests of many kinds; studied the 

 chemistry ; developed ' markets for standardized com- 

 modities. Here is one of the old established farm in- 

 dustries that within a generation has passed from the 

 housewife and the home-made hand press to highly per- 

 fected factory processes employing skilled service and 

 handling milk by the many tons from whole communi- 

 ties of cows. This is an example of the great changes 

 in agricultural practice. Cheese-making is now a piece 

 of applied science; many students in the colleges are 

 study ing. the subject ; no one would think of undertaking 

 it in the old way : for these reasons this book is written. 



This book is intended as a guide in the interpretation 

 of the processes of making and handling a series of im- 

 portant varieties of cheese. The kinds here considered 

 are those made commercially in America, or so widely 

 met in the trade that some knowledge of them is neces- 



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