138 AGRICULTURE 



understand, not only the principles of cheese- 

 making, but also the principles of milk 

 production and management. He must have 

 a knowledge of the influence of different soils 

 on the character of the milk and be able to 

 alter the conditions of manufacture to suit its 

 requirements. 



For instance, in making cheese from milk, 

 produced on a limestone soil, it is necessary 

 to adopt lower temperatures during the 

 process of manufacture, because such milk 

 has great keeping qualities and acidifies 

 slowly. On the other hand, higher tem- 

 peratures must be adopted in the case of 

 milk from gravel or clay soils which are 

 deficient in lime. 



Roughly speaking, cheese consists of fairly 

 equal proportions of casein, water, and fat, 

 with a certain proportion of ash, and very 

 small quantities of milk sugar. Casein is the 

 most important constituent of cheese, and 

 milk intended for cheesemaking has always 

 been valued according to the amount of 



