214 MODERN DAIRY PRACTICE. 



the cheese-room or curing-rooms, for the fermentation 

 processes favored in these are of a wholly different nature 

 and inimical to the changes to be brought about in the 

 ripening of the cream. It is also evident that the ripen- 

 ing-room ought not to serve as a passage-room, and that it 

 must be free from draught and equipped so that an ex- 

 treme cleanliness may exist throughout. It must be well 

 ventilated and kept at an even temperature (from 50-65 

 F.) The air should be dry, as it is otherwise very difficult 

 to prevent all kinds of fermentation from arising. 



The room must, of course, be provided with large win- 

 dows, so that light and sunshine may enter into it. It 

 need not be very large and must not be used for any other 

 purpose except, perhaps, for storing of butter ready for 

 shipment. 



Wooden cans or tin vats are used for ripening cream. 

 At the present the former are most used in Finnish cream- 

 eries; and if manufactured of hard, close-grained oak, they 

 may without difficulty be used for some time, as they can 

 then be easily and thoroughly cleaned and sterilized; but 

 if old and made of soft, loose wood, they have a very 

 deleterious influence on the ripening, as they cannot be 

 properly cleaned even by steaming, and the result is that 

 all kinds of bacteria lodge in them which may give 

 rise to faulty ripening. In my opinion the ripening-vats 

 prepared from tin, or tinned copper, are always to be pre- 

 ferred, as they may easily be kept clean and sterile. Metal 

 vessels are sometimes objected to on account of being good 

 conductors of heat; but if a proper ripening-room the 

 temperature of which can be regulated is available, this 

 objection will be of no importance. If such a room can- 

 not be obtained, an even temperature of the cream may 



