26 MANUFACTURE AND CURING OF CHEESE. 
and its qualities at best must have been purely negative. Another 
point in connection with the scoring was the fact that such small differ- 
ences in quality were noted between the different lots of cheese. The 
cheese was selected from a number of different factories, was subject 
to adverse influences before arriving in New York, and it is improbable 
that it could have been so nearly of the same quality. The explanation 
of this point, if there be any explanation, is probably that all three 
judges were commercial men, that all of the cheese, according to com- 
mercial standards, was well above the quality demanded for the high- 
est prices, and consequently the judges did not discriminate to any 
extent within these limits. From a commercial standpoint the scor- 
ing and its results were undoubtedly entirely satisfactory, but from an 
experimental point of view it would appear that there was something 
more to be desired. 
Another point in connection with this cooperative work as affecting 
both New York and Wisconsin and which might be considered subject 
to some criticism was the fact that the cheese for these experiments 
was obtained in quantities varying from 500 to 1 ,000 pounds from each 
factory. It is extremely improbable that in the case of the larger 
amounts coming from a single factory the cheese was all made in one 
vat. It would seem that a thoroughly satisfactory test would have 
required that the cheese from each and every factory should be divided 
between the different temperatures selected for storing on the basis of 
the vat in which the cheese was made — that is, that each vat of milk 
should have been considered by itself in dividing the cheese for the 
different temperatures of storing. Two vats of milk on the same day 
can easily vary as much in quality as the milk of widely separated days. 
It is a well-known fact that where more than one vat is run in a fac- 
tory on the same day cheese of the very highest quality may be made 
in one vat and of exceptionally poor quality in another. In these 
experiments, in a number of cases at least, it appears as though the 
cheese from each factory was lumped together without reference to 
whether it was made in one or two vats, and it is quite likely that some 
variation in results was due to this fact, as such could easily have been 
the case had the cheese varied as much in quality as it frequently does 
under such conditions. 
This cooperative work was impaired somewhat, in the writer's 
opinion, by the insistence of the Department of Agriculture that 
the cheese should be gathered from so many different sources. It 
was, of course, impossible to supervise or control the making of the 
cheese under such conditions. Then, too, such long shipments were 
required in many instances that the cheese was several days old 
before going into storage. There is no question but the work would 
have been much more valuable could it have been done in one locality 
where some direct observations could have been made on the manu- 
