UTILIZATION OF MILK BY CONVERTING IT INTO CHEESE. 299 



kinds of food. In districts where manures of the most various 

 kinds are applied, and in which not only the kind of feeding but 

 also the condition of the fodder varies on different farms, and in the 

 course of a year even on the same farm, to a considerable extent, 

 the percentage of bacteria in the milk must be naturally subject to 

 great variation. If this is the case, the ripening of cheese, when 

 the method of treatment remains the same, cannot possibly be of a 

 uniform nature. The success of the cheese manufactures will be 

 more or less affected, if not entirely jeopardized. These conditions 

 are most active in the case of the preparation of the best hard fatty 

 cheeses, which ripen slowly. They have little effect, it would 

 appear, on fat soft cheeses, the ripening of which begins on the 

 surface and develops towards the centre, nor have they much effect 

 on skim-milk cheeses. In certain districts of Switzerland on the 

 one hand, and in Holland on the other, the conditions favourable 

 for the manufacture of fine fatty hard cheeses are especially favour- 

 able. In both countries the cows feed through the entire summer 

 on excellent pastures, during winter-time on good hay. In both 

 countries the similarity of the feeding of the cattle, and the treat- 

 ment of natural pastures, effects a uniformity in the bacteriological 

 condition of the milk, which is scarcely found elsewhere in Europe. 

 Nevertheless, these two countries are not exactly on the same level, 

 Switzerland, with its high-lying Alpine pastures, coming before 

 Holland. The deep and moist marshes are undoubtedly richer in 

 bacteria than the Alpine ones. We have already seen that in 

 Holland, in the preparation of the much-prized kinds of cheeses, 

 the percentage of bacteria in the milk has to be influenced by the 

 addition of ropy whey to the milk. Although Emmenthaler cheeses 

 on the one hand, and Gouda on the other, are no longer, as was 

 formerly the case, only made in summer, but also in winter, and 

 although they are no longer exclusively manufactured in Switzer- 

 land and in Holland but also in other countries, it still remains the 

 fact that summer cheese is superior to winter cheese, and cheeses 

 made in those countries with which the manufacture of the cheese 

 has been long associated are better and finer than those made in 

 other countries. 



Good butter finds a ready market everywhere, but the different 

 kinds of fat cheeses are not equally liked in different localities. It is, 

 therefore, of the highest importance in the manufacture of cheese to 

 ascertain exactly what the taste for cheese is, and only to prepare 



