CHAPTER II. 

 OLD-METHOD CHEESE-MAKING. 



IT has always been considered a maxim in dairying 

 that the manufacture of cheese differs from butter-making 

 in this respect, that while cleanliness is the fundamental 

 rule in the latter, it may safely be left out of sight in 

 the former. Lack of cleanliness has even by some people 

 been considered an essential point in the management of 

 cheese-factories, and the mountain factories of the Swiss 

 have been offered as proof of the correctness of this state- 

 ment. Everywhere in these cheese-factories, as I have 

 had occasion to personally ascertain, conditions incompati- 

 ble with cleanliness are met with, although not to the 

 same extent in the large new cheese-factories as in the 

 small Alp factories. At the latter the barn usually 

 directly adjoins the cheese building; a calf-stable may 

 even be found in the cheese building, with calves in it; 

 both the walls and the ceiling of the room are black and 

 dirty; only dirt floors are usually found, and frequently 

 the fireplace lacks a good chimney and the smoke finds 

 its way out wherever it can, through cracks in the walls 

 and ceiling. Similar conditions are found in the curing- 

 room and the intense smell in the latter plainly indicates 

 that numerous fermentations take place there. 



Neither is special cleanliness observed in the manufac- 

 ture of soft French cheeses, as may easily be ascertained. 



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