TO WHAT VARIETIES ARE OWING. 255 



one variety of cheese possessing uniformity through- 

 out, in point of texture, consistency, taste, flavor, and 

 keeping qualities ; and it is rare, with the present guess- 

 work in many of the operations of cheese-making, to 

 find a lot of cheese made in the same dairy, from the 

 same cows, on the same pastures and by the same 

 hands, which can be considered a fair sample of what is 

 generally produced. These great differences are due 

 to feeding and treatment of the cows in part, but 

 especially to the temperature of the milk at the time 

 of curding, which is again in part dependent on the 

 quality and strength of the rennet employed. 



Nothing is more susceptible to external influences, 

 as has been remarked elsewhere, than milk and cream, 

 both of which are liable to taint from the food of the 

 cows, from impurities derived from careless milking, 

 from exposure to foul or impure air in the cellar or 

 milk-room, and from sudden changes in the atmosphere. 

 The most scrupulous cleanliness is, therefore, required 

 to produce a first quality of cheese, even under favor- 

 able circumstances. And when it is considered that it 

 is necessary to observe minutely the temperature of 

 the milk, and that slight differences at the time of 

 forming the curd may make the difference of mellow- 

 ness or toughness in the ripened cheese, and that the 

 proper temperature is affected by the time taken to 

 bring the curd, which depends on the strength and 

 quality of the rennet, some of which will act in fifteen 

 or twenty minutes, while the same quantity of others 

 requires even two or three hours to produce the same 

 effect, the infinite variety in the qualities of cheese will 

 scarcely be a matter of surprise. 



A brief statement of the mode of making some of 

 the more important and well-known varieties will be suf- 

 ficient in this connection. The details of. cheese-making 



