98 THE INVISIBLE WORLD 



000,000 microbes. The cheese is thus literally 

 filled with these living beings. The entire mass, 

 like so many honey bees, are actively at work, and 

 do a vitally good thing for the cheese. They grow, 

 multiply, and live on certain properties of the 

 cheese. In other words, they consume these proper- 

 ties as food. Meanwhile, during their life proc- 

 esses, they secrete certain substances which give to 

 the cheese its fine flavor, render it brittle, easily 

 digested, and make it an excellent article of food. 



But they work slow. It takes time. The me- 

 dium in which they work is a solid. It takes 

 longer than it would to do a similar work in a 

 liquid. This is only natural. The softer the sub- 

 stance the quicker it is worked. The wooden house 

 is built quicker than the stone house. The expense 

 of polishing a certain royal diamond was f 40,000. 

 Its hardness required costly machinery, the 

 highest skill in workmen, and long time. So our 

 infinitely little mechanics require time according 

 to the medium in which they work. In the liquid 

 cream their work may require but a day or less. 

 In the more solid cheese, it may require months. 

 An expert cheese-maker told me the other day that 

 it takes at least six months properly to ripen a 

 cheese. 



Here's the critical point time. In so far as 

 I know, cheese-makers rush their cheese to market 

 before it is half ripe. It is curdy. It lacks the 

 fine flavors. Gentlemen of the dairy, hold on! 

 You grasp your money too soon. Wait. It will 



