8 Composition of Cheese. 



stinted supply of grass, are seen in bold relief in the first and 

 the sixth analyses. 



Whilst the proportion of butter in different samples of milk 

 varies exceedingly the relative amounts of curd or casein, of 

 milk-sugar and of ash, though liable to certain fluctuations, do 

 not greatly differ in good, indifferent, or even very poor milk. 

 It would thus appear that the quantity and quality of food, and 

 other varying circumstances which affect the composition of 

 milk, exert their influence principally on the proportion of butter. 

 And as this is certainly the most valuable constituent of cheese, 

 and 1 Ib. of butter suffices for about 2 Ibs. of saleable cheese, we 

 can readily understand that in one dairy a considerable quantity 

 of cream may be taken off the milk, and yet a better quality and 

 a greater quantity of cheese can be made than in another dairy, 

 from the same quantity of milk, from which no cream has been 

 removed. 



The second analysis exhibits nearly 5 per cent, of butter, a 

 proportion which is decidedly above the average. This analysis 

 has been selected as an example illustrating the increasing rich- 

 ness of milk in the fall of the year. Practical cheese-makers are 

 well acquainted with the fact, that in autumn, when green food 

 becomes scarcer, the quantity of milk diminishes considerably, 

 but that the weight of cheese which can then be made from a 

 given quantity of milk is much greater than in spring or 

 summer. An inspection of the second and fourth analyses affords 

 a ready explanation of this fact. 



Both these milks came from the same dairy. In August the 

 milk scarcely contained 3J per cent, of butter, and, in round 

 numbers, 3 per cent, of casein ; in November it yielded 5 per 

 cent of butter and J per cent, more casein than in August. 

 Rightly to appreciate this increase, it should be regarded, not so 

 much as an addition of 2J- parts in 100 parts of fluid, as of 2J 

 parts to 12 J solid matter, the total percentage found in August, 

 or an increase of 20 per cent, on the solid matter. And if we 

 consider that most of the milk-sugar and of the mineral matters 

 pass into the whey in the cheese-manufacturing process, the 

 difference in the cheese-producing qualities of the August and 

 November milk appears still greater. 



In one of the milks we have 3J per cent, of butter and 3 

 of casein, or 5J per cent, of solid cheese-producing materials in 

 every 100 parts of milk ; in the other there are 5 per cent, of 

 butter and 3J of casein, or 8J of solid cheese-producing matters. 

 Thus the real proportion in the two milks is as 5J to 8J that is 

 to say, the latter yields 55 per cent, more dry cheese-forming 

 materials than the former ; and as we find in good cheese about 



