10 MANUFACTURE AND CURING OF CHEESE. 
hard to predict the future course of the consumer's taste in this con- 
nection, it is very doubtful if we shall ever arrive at the time or con- 
dition when as a general thing some flavor is not desired in the cheese. 
This comparative demand for mild or for strong cheese is very naturally 
of considerable interest in connection with any question concerning 
methods and conditions of curing. Especially is this true in the 
discussion of methods which are likely to cause a great variation in the 
flavor of the product. The old system of warm rooms developed a 
high flavor; the new sj^stem of cold rooms has a tendency to suppress 
flavor entirely. To ascertain the public taste and meet it by modifi- 
cations will probably prove to be almost a necessity in the cheese- 
curing industry. 
In the American or Cheddar cheese industry of the present time 
there are two very important practical questions, one of recent origin 
and the other recognized for several } r ears. These are so closely 
related that it is almost impossible to consider them separately, as 
they depend to a great extent upon each other. The recent question 
has already been mentioned, and relates to the growth of the popular 
demand for mild cheese; the other is the problem of the influence of 
temperature on the curing of cheese, which has been studied for about 
ten years and which has a number of points that have not yet been 
settled to the satisfaction of cheese dealers in general. 
In the early days of the industry in this country not much attention 
was paid to the question of the effect of temperature on curing. The 
curing rooms or "dry houses/' as they were called, had very little or 
no provision against changes in temperature, and it is probable that 
the temperature followed closely that of the outside atmosphere. 
The practice of winter cheese making is of comparatively recent origin, 
so that there was, as a rule, no necessity for any provision against the 
freezing of the product. Heat was not supposed to have any effect 
in the curing — it would at least so appear from a description of the old 
curing rooms — and consequently no attempt at insulation was made. 
It was not until 1895 that this question of curing-room temperature 
was considered of sufficient importance to warrant any attempt being 
made to determine if any benefit could be derived from the employ- 
ment of an artificial temperature lower than the temperature prevail- 
ing during a large part of the summer. It is somewhat astonishing 
that this should have been the case, as at the present time it is so well 
recognized that the effects of high temperature on cheese are plainly 
unfavorable that we do not understand why the cheese maker of 
twenty or thirty years ago should not have perceived this and tried 
to remedy it. We know that where a cheese has any tendency what- 
ever to a gassy nature the heat immediately causes it to swell or huff 
up to an extent causing considerable damage to its commercial value. 
We also know that the heat causes the grease to come out of the 
