342 THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. BOOK n. 



keep good so long. A firm of Scottish cheese-makers, writing to us 

 on this subject, say, " We always, when we wish cheese quickly into 

 the market, make it rather acid. The sweet-made cheese takes longer 

 to ripen, and is often as of fine a flavour when matured." A fine 

 Cheddar, however, will keep well for a couple of years, though, perhaps, 

 it was ripe in three months. What we want everywhere, indeed, is 

 cheese early to ripen and slow to decay, cheese that can be turned 

 into money before it has lost more than 10 per cent, of its weight in 

 drying, or that will keep well, if necessary, till a market is found for 

 it. A temperature of 70 F., there or thereabout, has been found to 

 ripen Cheddar cheese admirably, but it seldom happens that the 

 atmosphere of the cheese-room is strictly maintained at that point, 

 nor indeed is it necessary that it should be. 



It is a good practice to place thin white paper upon the shelves on 

 which the cheeses are laid, because when new they sometimes adhere 

 to the board, and communicate a dampness to it that is prejudicial. 

 The paper also promotes drying. At a more advanced stage the 

 cheese may be laid upon straw, but at first this would sink into and 

 deface the surface. 



In a paper upon " The Ripening of Cheese : its Nature and 

 Control," by Dr. Bernard Dyer, ( " Journal of the Bath and West of 

 England Society, 1891,") it is pointed out that taints in butter are 

 generally produced by changes brought about by microscopically 

 minute organisms or ferments, and that the main point to be kept in 

 view in butter-making is to render as powerless or inert as possible the 

 organisms with which we cannot keep milk and butter from becoming 

 contaminated. Dr. Dyer proceeds : 



" In cheese-making the case is altogether different. There we are 

 altogether dependent upon organisms, for the ripening of cheese is 

 effected wholly by organisms or living ferments of various kinds 

 some of them bacteria, some of them moulds. The flavour and 

 texture of cheese are determined by the particular organisms present, 

 and the facilities afforded to one race or another to become dominant. 

 It is the variety of the organisms, and the variation of the conditions 

 in which they are placed, that account for the many kinds of cheese 

 that can be made from one and the same raw material, milk. 



" Not unfrequently we hear the special quality of the cheese 01 a 

 given district attributed to special excellence in the local pasture. 

 This notion (in the opinion of many) i-s not well founded. It is far 

 more likely to be due in most cases to the special local prevalence of 

 certain varieties of organized ferments. This view is supported by 

 sound facts. It was formerly held that many foreign fancy cheeses 

 could only be made in their native homes, attempts to imitate them 

 elsewhere, even when the various steps of the process were carefully 

 followed, having failed ; the characteristic ripenings required did not 

 take place and the characteristic moulds were not developed. It has, 

 however, been found that if the moulds are transplanted from one 

 dairy to another, and the proper conditions are then observed, the 

 characteristic ripening required does take place, simultaneously with 



