Composition of Cheese. 
G9 
It is the. same with cheese-making as with cookery, as we shall 
do well to bear in mind. 
Lest these observations on publications on cheese-making 
should seem to disparage too much the merits ol the different 
authors, I may state distinctly that a few ])apers contain valuable 
and plain directions for making good cheese ; but I am bound 
at the same time to confess that the greater number, and more 
especially most of the prize essays on cheese-making which I 
have read, in my humble opinion, are next to useless to the 
dairy-farmer, inasmuch as they generally contain nothing good 
but what every dairy-farmer has long known ever since he began 
making cheese, — and a great deal besides, which, though it may 
appear novel, ingenious, or feasible, will at once be condemned 
by any man of sound judgment as visionary and utterly im- 
practicable. 
There are many topics intimately connected with the manu- 
facture of cheese on Avhich I have not touched at all, such as the 
influence of the food on the quantity and quality of milk, an 
important subject as yet hardly investigated at all. Again the 
influence of the race on the production of milk deserves to be 
carefully studied, besides various other points on which practical 
men may wish to obtain trustworthy information. My passing 
them over in silence in the present paper will not I trust be 
taken as an indication of want of acquaintance with the real 
practical wants of the dairy-farmer. 
Hitherto scarcely anything directly bearing on dairy-practice 
has been done by scientific men : the whole investigation has, 
therefore, engaged my liveliest attention, and brought to light 
some unexpected chemical facts which have been recorded in 
the preceding pages. Others 1 hope to lay before the readers 
of the Journal when the researches still in hand shall be in a 
sufficiently advanced state to warrant their publication. 
Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, June, 18G1. 
IV. — Experiments upon Swedes. By Dr. Augustus Voelcker, 
Agricultural experiments are of little or no practical utility 
unless they are continued from year to year for a long period, 
and tried on a variety of soils in good and in bad seasons in a 
manner which allows us, if not to eliminate, yet clearly to recog- 
nise the disturbing influences of climate, season, condition of 
soils, and other circumstances which often affect the produce in 
a higher degree than the manures on which we experiment. A 
