46 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



poorest way is to salt it in brine ; to pack it down where it cm 

 have no access to the air, and where it will be prevented from 

 making any change. 



Mr. Ellsworth. I am acquainted with a factory that has 

 very good success in making cheese, where they have prac- 

 tised soaking the quantity of rennet that they wanted to use, 

 so as to have it just right at the proper time ; but this year, 

 after this process was all gone through, they have preserved 

 it in some nice French brandy, and they have succeeded ad- 

 mirably ; they have had better luck than ever before. What 

 is your opinion of that course ? 



Mr. Arnold. That would be rather an unusual way to 

 use brandy ; that would have to be a matter of experiment. 

 I cannot express any opinion upon that without trying the 

 experiment, because much salt has a tendency to check the 

 action of rennet, and to prevent the growth of germs in the 

 rennet skin, and thus prevent the rennet from growing stronger 

 by age. Old rennets are better than new ; first, because by 

 exposing to the air, the strong odor of the fresh stomach 

 passes away ; second, because by being alternately damp and 

 dry, the germs in it grow and multiply. Preserving in a 

 pickle is the poorest way to preserve them, because, first, the 

 odor has no chance to escape ; and, second, because there is 

 no chance for germ development. 



Question. What would be the effect upon the cheese from 

 putting brandy in the vessel where rennets are soaking? 



Mr. Arnold. I cannot say. I have never used it in that 

 way. It is an antiseptic, and destructive to some ferments. 

 What effect it would have upon rennet-germs or upon cheese, 

 I could not, without an experiment, predict, for this reason : 

 that some things that will check some ferments will not check 

 others. Carbolic acid will check almost all ferments. A 

 very large number of ferments are destroyed by a small quan- 

 tity of carbolic acid. It does not affect rennet at all ; and 

 nobody can tell, without trying, what effect an antiseptic 

 would have upon any particular kind of ferment. Brandy is 

 an antiseptic, so far as most kinds of ferments are concerned. 

 Putrefactive ferments are checked by the presence of brandy 

 very effectually ; whether it would affect the rennet-germ, I 

 cannot tell without trying. 



