186 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Even the breeding and raising of stock were neglected, and 

 the herds largely made np by importing cattle from the non- 

 dairying districts. So strongly did this single specialty system 

 impress the mind, that butter manufacture was abandoned as 

 far as it could be, and every effort was made to work up all the 

 cream into the cheese. The best manufacturers in the country, 

 the English shippers and the great army of cheese dealers in- 

 sisted that fine cheese demanded the largest amount of cream, 

 and that the richer the milk the better the cheese. I was the 

 first to assail this principle and show it to be fallacious. I 

 showed from actual experiment, from chemical analysis, from 

 the whey-vats of factories covered with cream almost thick 

 enough to bear a man, that fine cheese did not depend altogether 

 upon the amount of butter in its composition. 



So prejudiced are people who have been long engaged in a 

 specialty, and educated up to a certain notion, that I doubt 

 whether the dairymen of New York could have been induced to 

 pay the least respect for such teaching, had not the acid process 

 in cheese-making, which I had some years before introduced, 

 proved a success, and become generally adopted, saving to the 

 country millions of dollars. 



Perhaps a word of explanation should be given in regard to 

 this so-called acid process. Up to 1864 the cheese of America 

 was manufactured by processes having no fixed principle. The 

 thermometer for testing the heat in the various manipulations 

 was only in occasional use. The impression universally pre- 

 vailed that the milk, the curds and the whey, during the whole 

 process of manipulation, should be kept perfectly sweet. Any 

 perceptible acidity developed by accident during the process was 

 regarded by cheese-makers as a calamity entailing losses. As a 

 consequence, the great bulk of American cheese was soft, 

 spongy, extremely liable to get out of flavor, quick of decay, 

 and of no character in the English market except as poor, bad 

 and indifferent. Immense losses were from time to time made 

 by the dealers handling it ; and although some prime dairies 

 were made by those who had a life-long experience, they were 

 not able to explain the principles by which their success was ob- 

 tained. I had been experimenting in milk, with a view of fixing 

 upon some definite stand-point as a guide in cheese-making. 

 Instead of guessing at temperature by introducing the hand into 



