BACTERIA AND CHEESE-MAKING. 267 



the third group are indifferent. In the curing of the 

 Roquefort cheese certain molds play an important part.* 



The number of bacteria contained in cheese increases 

 immensely during the curing process. At its beginning 

 Adametz found 90,000 bacteria in one gram of Swiss 

 cheese, but when the fermentation was at its highest as 

 many as 850,000 were found in it. By adding small 

 quantities of disinfectants to the cheese, Adametz pre- 

 vented the bacteria in the cheese from increasing, but at 

 the same time the curing process of the cheese was com- 

 pletely checked.f 



Method of Manufacture of Soft Cheese. In most of 

 the firm kinds of cheese spoken of in the preceding, the 

 curing process takes place very slowly; in some it lasts for 

 a year, in others for several years. In the soft kinds of 

 cheese, on the other hand, the curing has a much more 

 rapid course. The coagulated and molded curd is highly 

 infected by placing the green cheese on straw mats pre- 

 viously used, in a room where molds, etc., are plentiful. 

 Before long the cheeses will be spotted with brown mold 

 colonies which gradually spread to a white downy cover. 

 At the same time the bacteria in the cheese have started 

 their fermentations, but the relatively low temperature 



* Roquefort cheese is made in the department of Aveyron, 

 southern France, from sheep's milk. Carefully-prepared molded 

 bread is introduced in the forms between the layers of curd, and 

 the cheese is ripened in mountain-caves, where the temperature is 

 very low and varies but little (39-46 F.), while the air is kept 

 exceedingly moist by small streams of water running down the walls 

 of the caves (relative humidity about 60). W. 



fSee also Pammel (Bulletin No. 21, Iowa Experiment Station, 

 p. 798) and Baumann (loc. cit.). W. 



