20 MANUFACTURE AND CURING OF CHEESE. 
this of course being due to the fact that undesirable qualities had very 
little opportunity to develop under these conditions. It was also 
shown that the cheese lost much less in weight when cured at the low 
temperature. This was a very important point at the time of these 
experiments. Another point was the longer period for curing and 
the consequently longer time during which the cheese was fit for con- 
sumption. It would appear that this was an important point, but in 
view of market conditions it is doubtful if this fact of longer keeping is 
of as great advantage as was at first supposed, except in the carrying 
of cheese for the winter and spring trade. It is deemed necessary by 
cheese makers that all cheese of a previous year's make be cleaned up 
by about April 1 to avoid a financial loss due to the lower prices of the 
new cheese, which comes on the market about this time and which 
appears to be just as desirable to the consumer. A few months 
added to the keeping period may be desirable, but one or two years 
would not be considered by many dealers. 
In the work done at Guelph, Canada, there were two very com- 
mendable features, one being the great number of different days' 
make which was compared. In the experiments for 1904 alone 42 
lots of cheese were made up. The other feature was the fact that all 
of the cheese in a single test came from the same vat of milk. As the 
milk at Guelph is obtained from herds scattered throughout a small 
territory — the same condition that prevails hi the case of a commercial 
factory — these experiments should have great weight. It would 
appear that the only possible opportunity for variation or ground for 
criticism would be on account of the cbeese not being carried in regular 
cold-storage establishments, such as are found in the larger cities and 
which are conducted upon a commercial scale. 
COMPARISON OF ICE AND MECHANICAL REFRIGERATION. 
An interesting feature of the Ontario work was a comparison of the 
effect upon cheese of ice and mechanical refrigeration. This was a 
point well worth investigating, especially in the days before paraffining 
had become general. It is difficult, however, to comprehend how the 
cheese could be influenced to any appreciable extent by the fact that 
one room was cooled by ice and another by some other means. The 
only probable variation in the condition of the atmosphere would be 
in the relatively higher humidity in the rooms cooled by ice. At the 
present time, when practically all the cheese that comes into cold 
storage is paraffined, any variation in the moisture content of the air 
would have no effect whatever, or certainly none that need be taken 
into consideration. The cheese used in the Canadian experiments, 
as well as that used in the Wisconsin work, was not paraffined, and it 
was thought probable that the humidity would lessen the shrinkage 
and through this influence the quality. As was brought out in the 
