British Dairy Farming. 
155 
In confirmation of this fact I have myself succeeded in 
making a high-class Camembert, only by the introduction of 
the fungus peculiar to it from an important French dairy in 
France. Careful observations and experiments prove to any one 
acquainted with curd-manipulation or cheese-making that 
different varieties of fungi appear under different conditions. 
For example, a cheese left to ripen at a low temperature will be 
covered in the course of a few weeks with a very small, in- 
significant, grey fungus, not unlike that which forms upon the 
crust of a pressed cheese. If the new cheeses are exposed to a 
humid atmosphere, they will be covered with a common white 
mould, tipped with black points, and these in a short space of 
time will bring about a bitter taste in the cheese, just as the first- 
named fungus will convert a curd into cheese analogous to that 
of a pressed cheese. Again, it is possible to obtain a Brie 
entirely covered with a red fungus, by using an extremely small 
quantity of salt instead of the full allowance, and by regularly 
placing the cheese upon mats which have been previously used, 
and which are consequently tainted with acidity from having 
been soaked in whey. This red fungus is appreciated by a 
certain class of buyers, inasmuch as it is responsible for the 
flavour which, although less delicate and refined, is appreciated 
by a certain class of consumers. The highest class of fungus is 
a bright blue, and this does not appear upon the cheese until it 
has been completely covered with a perfectly white, even, and 
somewhat heavy mould. At the end of six or seven days the 
blue fungus appears in spots or boutons, and gradually extends 
over the whole surface. Lastly, between fifteen and twenty days, 
under ordinary conditions of temperature, this bright blue mould 
is in its turn covered with a second, but smaller white fungus. 
The decomposition of the first mould gives the cheese the 
peculiar reddish hue which is seen beneath the last mould. 
By this time, however, continual handling in the process of 
turning has flattened or destroyed much of the fungus, so that 
am quite convinced of the fact, and in this way. We know that a fine red 
vegetation sometimes comes by chance upon some cheeses, and gives them a 
stamp of value — a most recherch€e quality. This vegetation is quite accidental 
and entirely owing to tlie apartment in which the cheeses are preserved. I know 
some farmers who are invariably able to obtain it — they are privileged. To 
obtain this fungus I searched for a long time in humid cellars, and determined 
at any cost to find it ; and at last I succeeded. 
"In a damp cellar, in which were some empty barrels, I found upon one of 
them a superb fungus, a bright rod in the centre and surrounded with the fine 
white mould exactly as I desired. I took it, put it upon a cheese which was 
undergoing its first vegetation, and at the end of some days it had spread and 
agreeably tinted the cheese. This was not the first time that I had grafted a 
fungus of another colour ; but the operation in question gave me much more 
pleasure, inasmuch as I had searched so long that I despaired of success." 
