104 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF AGRICULTURE. 



best cheese is produced, and the least loss occurs in manu- 

 facture, from milk rich in fat. 



Good Cheese should possess richness, that is, good 

 proportions of fat and casein, good flavor, keeping quali- 

 ties, and firmness of texture ; and can only be secured 

 by very careful attention to the details in the numerous 

 operations required in its manufacture. 



Cheese as Food. Whole-milk cheese, though vary- 

 ing in composition, is a very nutritious food, since it is 

 rich in the most valuable nutrients, casein and fat. Good 

 products contain as high as thirty-five to forty per cent 

 of fat, twenty-five to thirty per cent of casein, and as low 

 as twenty per cent of water. Skim-milk cheese, though 

 an excellent food, is less valuable ; it contains more water 

 and much less fat. 



Skim-milk. This consists of the remainder of the 

 milk after the removal of the fat, and varies in composi- 

 tion according to the completeness of skimming, or separa- 

 tion of fat ; as a rule, separator skim-milk is poorer in fat 

 than that derived by other methods. Skim-milk shows 

 less total solid matter and different proportion of the 

 food constituents than whole milk ; fat is the most vari- 

 able constituent. It ranges from two-tenths of one per 

 cent to one per cent; casein and ash are slightly less, 

 while milk sugar is somewhat greater in amount than in 

 whole milk. An average composition would probably 

 show : 



"W"ater 90.00 per cent. 



Fat 0.80 " 



Casein and Albumen 3.60 " 



Sugar 4.90 " 



Ash . 0.70 " 



