CHAPTER IX. 



THE CHEESE-DAIRY. 



* Streams of new milk through flowing coolers stray, 

 And snow-white curds abound, and wholesome whey." 



MILK, if allowed to become sour, will eventually 

 curdle, when the whey is easily separated ; and this 

 simple mode was probably the universal method of 

 making cheese in ancient times. Cheese, as already 

 explained, is made from caseine, an ingredient of milk 

 held in solution by means of an alkali, which it re- 

 quires the presence of an acid to neutralize. This, in 

 modern manufacture, is artificially added to form the 

 curd ; but the acidity of milk, after standing, acts in 

 the same manner to produce coagulation. This is due 

 to the change of the milk-sugar into lactic acid. 



Cheese has been made and used as an article of food 

 from a very early date. It was well known to the early 

 Jewish patriarchs, and is frequently mentioned in the 

 earliest Hebrew records. " Hast thou not poured me 

 out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?" says Job ; and 

 David was sent to " carry ten cheeses to the captain of 

 their thousand in the camp." Most of the ancient 

 nations, indeed, barbarous as well as civilized, made it 

 a prominent article of food. But cheese, as made by 

 the ancients, was found to be hard and brittle, and not 

 well flavored, and means were devised to produce the 

 same effect while the milk still remained sweet. It was 

 21 16 



