4 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING 



crops are grown grass in particular, for it is 

 the commonest food of cows the cattle are 

 best, and the milk they produce most abundant. 

 Soil, however, has another influence which it is 

 essential to mention. As we shall show, acidity 

 plays an important part in the process of cheese- 

 manufacture. But acidity is to some extent 

 controlled by the alkaline properties which are 

 present in milk, and as a proportion of these 

 properties depends to a large extent upon the 

 soil from which they are obtained, so does 

 the soil indirectly influence the quality of the 

 cheese, unless, by the exercise of the highest 

 skill, sufficient allowance is made and the acidity 

 controlled. Similarly, water exercises an influ- 

 ence when it contains an abnormal quantity of 

 lime, and it is next to impossible to produce 

 fine-flavoured cheese where such weeds as garlic 

 are common on the pasture. The dairy, too, 

 must be constructed with the object of providing 

 perfect ventilation, the maintenance of an even 

 temperature, and the exclusion of every possible 

 means of conveying a taint to the milk. 



Upon the first part of the process of manu- 

 facture in the dairy that of the coagulation of 



