CHEESE-MAKING. 93 



article of food that will keep during a considerable period, and 

 in such a manner that while decay is indefinitely postponed the 

 cheese shall ripen slowly into an attractive and most excellent 

 article of diet. The degree of its attractiveness is the measure 

 of the skill of the cheese-maker. 



In respect to the keeping properties of cheese there is very 

 great diversity. The American cheese which comes in ship- 

 loads to this country is, as a rule, cheese that will not keep very 

 long ; and while indeed none of it will keep long in the sense 

 that British cheese will keep, not a little of it will hardly keep 

 long enough to get it before the consumers here. The voyage 

 appears to have ripened it rapidly. On the other hand, 

 there is a great deal of British cheese that is more or less 

 immature until it has got well into its second year. Writing in 

 The Times of January 3, 1887, Archdeacon Denison says: "I 

 have a piece of Cheddar cheese lying under a glass on my hall 

 table. It was made forty-one years ago. It is hard now, but it 

 is quite sweet. True Cheddar is always best at two years." 



It is, however, quite possible to make " true Cheddar " that 

 is ripe in less than one year, and quite as good as that which 

 takes twice as long. It is not at all desirable that cheese 

 should take two years to ripen, save from the point of view of 

 an epicure and an antiquarian. Practical, rent-paying farmers 

 can hardly afford to keep their cheese two years to ripen, and 

 dealers will not do so. The loss from interest on capital would 

 amount to $ a ton, plus the loss of weight, which would 

 amount to a similar sum. Not in many cases, I fear, would 

 the extra price commanded by ripe two-year-old Cheddar cheese 

 reimburse the farmer for the losses indicated. 



What the farmer aims at, indeed, is to produce cheese that 

 is fairly ripe in four months, and not too far gone in twelve. 

 There is no great difficulty in accomplishing this; indeed, 

 there soon is none if people will only try to learn, none what- 

 ever to those who " have the know how," as our unconventional 

 cousins in America say. Factory-made cheese is ripe sooner 

 than that of farm-houses, but it will not always keep as long. 

 "That is a mere euphemism, 1 ' some persons may say; but it is 



