50 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING 



hasten the process of ripening : first, by drying 

 the cheese at a slightly higher temperature than 

 is common, and next, by ripening it in an 

 apartment kept at from 65 to 67 F., and pro- 

 nouncedly humid. On the other hand, ripening 

 may be delayed by the adoption of a lower 

 temperature, which both prevents the mould 

 from growing so freely, and the bacteria (which 

 play an important part in the conversion of 

 the insoluble curd into soluble cheese) from 

 carrying out their work so rapidly. 



New makers are apt to take up a variety 

 of cheese, the producers of which are already 

 numerous. The Italians are producing more 

 and more Gorgonzola, while in England, Stilton, 

 being the most fashionable of the blue moulded 

 cheeses of this country, has had the ranks of its 

 makers reinforced so much of late, that the price 

 has fallen to such an extent that the industry 

 will presently not be worth following. There is 

 great room for the extension of the system 

 adopted in Wensleydale, and it is certain that if 

 this cheese were systematically produced, and if 

 it were mild and mellow as the very finest of 

 the samples are, it would be much more largely 



