1893 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
529 
CHEESE WITHOUT RENNET. 
Little improvement has been made in cheese-mak¬ 
ing during the last half century. With little varia¬ 
tion, cheese-makers are following in the same old rut 
made by their grandfathers. Considerable has been 
learned about milk and microbes, and the present 
generation knows better than the pa^t how to care 
for milk. We can make an evener product; but the 
best cheese made 50 years ago was equal to the best 
made to-day. No new process has been discovered, 
no new path has been struck out. We still pursue 
the same old sloppy and wasteful way, using rennet 
and manipulating cuid. No station or enterprising 
dairyman has tried to get along without the use of 
rennet, by simply reducing the pure, unadulterated 
milk to the consistency of cheese, and then pressing 
and curing, or otherwise preparing it for future use. 
Evaporation has stopped with condensed milk, and 
this has been spoiled for cheese by loading it with 
sugar. Is there not possibly a better way of con¬ 
densing milk into cheese, after it has been robbed 
from the young, than by murdering the wronged 
innocent to obtain the curdling principle of its stom¬ 
ach for cheese-making ? Must we forever continue 
this barbarous and slovenly practice ? Can we do no 
better than to cultivate microbes to aid us in this 
depredating work? Let us hope for something better. 
What do we use rennet for ? Simply to coagulate 
the milk ? Why coagulate it ? Is it not to aid us in 
getting rid of the water ? It used to be claimed, and 
was supposed to be demonstrated, that the action of 
the rennet continued during the process of curing the 
cheese, thus aiding in breaking down the tough curd 
and converting the casein into digestible food. But 
Prof. Robertson, of Canada, and some other later 
authorities claim that they have proved the rennet 
to have no effect in the process of curing the cheese. 
If this is a fact, then of course curding the milk can 
have no other object than that of aiding in separating 
the solids from the water. Cannot this be done more 
cheaply and expeditiously by evaporation with appar¬ 
atus for the purpose? Would it not be worth while 
to make experiments in this direction? t. d. curtis. 
The Practical Point of View. 
This theory sounds very well, but it does not work 
in practice. It has been tried and found to be a com¬ 
plete failure. Instead of ripening into a fine flavored 
cheese, the product became a putrid mass of no value 
for food. As to the effect of the rennet in curing the 
cheese, it is true that Prof. Robertson and some other 
authorities claim that it has nothing to do with that 
process ; but other good authorities claim that it has. 
Until more exhaustive work has been done in this 
line it will be a disputed question. One thing that 
has some bearing on the matter is that when cheeses 
have been made by using acid to curdle the milk in¬ 
stead of rennet, they did not ripen, but retained their 
hard, curdy nature. This would go to show that the 
rennet had some office to fulfill in the change which 
takes place in the curd during the curing process. It 
is to be hoped that some one will be able, in the near 
future, to determine just what the effect is. Mr. C. 
also says that we have made no advance in the last 50 
years. I do not think that any one who has kept 
track of the business will agree with him in his state¬ 
ment. In the earlier history of cheese-making it was 
a hap-hazard business. While people did make some 
good cheeses, they made more poor ones, and they 
could not tell why one was poor and the other good. 
To-day the intelligent cheese-maker knows the condi¬ 
tion of his milk before he begins operations, and is 
thereby enabled to work understanding^ and pro¬ 
duce a good article with reasonable certainty. It is 
true that there is room for still greater improvement, 
and with the help of our experiment stations and 
dairy schools we are moving towards a higher plane 
all the time. g. a. smith. 
Dairy Instructor N. Y. Dairymen’s Ass’n. 
The Scientific Side of It. 
Perhaps it is well worth while to make experiments 
in the direction indicated by Mr. Curtis. Nevertheless, 
the product which would be secured would no more 
be entitled to the name of cheese than that product 
which is secured from the use of Black pepsin is en¬ 
titled to be called butter. To make this clear, I would 
say that ordinarily but little more than half the solids 
present in milk are, according to our experiments, 
which have been very extensive, incorporated in 
cheese. This is due to the fact that in the ordinary 
process of manufacturing cheese, the product obtained 
consists practically of all the casein and fat present in 
the milk. A small percentage of the sugar and of the 
ash is also secured, I presume mechanically entangled 
in the curd. In the whey there exists a small fraction 
of the fat, nearly all the soluble nitrogenous matter 
or albumen, constituting, on an average, over 20 per 
cent of the total nitrogenous matter present in the 
milk, and, besides, most of the sugar and ash of the 
milk. In other words, the total solids of the whey, on 
an average, equal about 85 per cent of the total solids 
present in the cheese obtained therefrom. By the 
method suggested, therefore, by Mr. Curtis, we should 
have by evaporation a mass 85 per cent greater than 
the amount of cheese secured by the cheese-maker, 
but of a composition so entirely different that it would 
be a misnomer to term it cheese, and it would be a 
question which experiment only could answer whether 
by this evaporation the constituents of the milk would 
not be brought into conditions which would render 
them unable to be incorporated in anything closely re¬ 
sembling cheese in texture. "What the effect of curing 
would be upon such a mass it is difficult to say, but 
unquestionably it would result in the production of 
products widely different from our ordinary cheese ; 
and with the presence of a large amount of soluble 
nitrogenous matters and seven or eight times the ordi¬ 
nary amount of sugar present in cheese, it would be 
difficult even to hazard a conjecture as to the result. 
While much unquestionably remains to be explained 
concerning the production of cheese, especially as to 
the reactions taking place in the curing room, I have 
no doubt that ultimately this will be solved so that 
the production of any of the well-known varieties of 
cheese will be reduced to an exact science, following 
which the dairyman can produce any variety called 
for in the market. peter collier. 
New York Experiment Station. 
Rennet DOES Ripen the Cheese. 
Mr. Curtis has evidently not been about our best 
modern dairies or factories, else he would not use the 
terms, “ sloppy and wasteful way of using rennet and 
manipulating curd.” It may be mentioned that the 
“curdling principle” used by the cheese-maker “seems 
to be somewhat widely distributed in nature among 
animals and plants, and it is a common product of 
bacteria growth,” so that it is not necessary to “ mur¬ 
der the wronged innocent ” to obtain rennet; in fact, 
the majority of our best factories in this Province use 
prepared rennet extracts, which are more satisfactory 
than the product obtained by the old method of slaugh- 
teringthe calves and soaking the rennets, or stomachs. 
With reference to the rennet having no effect in 
“ converting the casein into digestible food,” and with 
all due respect to the authorities quoted, I found last 
winter that rennet did have the effect of ripening the 
cheese. This was not only my own opinion, but also 
that of experts who examined the cheese and who 
were not aware of the manner in which the different 
kinds had been treated. Cheeses made on the same 
date and handled in exactly the same way as others, 
except that an increased quantity of rennet was used, 
vere pronounced “ripe” at the end of about three 
weeks, while the others in which a small quantity of 
rennet was used, were considered “ green.” 
The difference between cheese and evaporated milk 
is chiefly this : the former contains but three or four 
of the original compounds of the milk, viz., water 
about 31 per cent, fat 31 per cent, casein 31 per cent, 
and about seven per cent of lactic acid, ash, etc., 
while the evaporated milk has also the milk sugar, 
which in cheese-making passes off in the whey, and 
a varying amount of water and in some cases cane 
sugar. As to whether cheese will ever be made by 
“ evaporation, with apparatus for the purpose,” I am 
unable to say ; but I hardly think so—certainly not 
what we call cheese at the present time, though there 
is possibly room for improvement in the present 
methods of condensing milk and caring for the con¬ 
densed product. H. H. DEAN. 
Ontario Agricultural College. 
What Professor Robertson Says. 
I think it possible that cheese of fair quality can be 
made without the use of rennet. In the meantime 
I do not know of any substitute which can take its 
place with any gain in the quantity or quality of the 
product or advantage in the cost of production. I do 
not find any practical suggestion of a new method in 
the article submitted to me. It is not so hard to make 
fun of the old-fashioned methods ; it is not so easy to 
successfully improve upon them or to replace them by 
others wholly better. I have done a little work in 
cheese-making in the direction indicated, and am 
hopeful of very good results, but have nothing ready 
for publication as yet, jas. w. robertson. 
Dairy Commissioner, Canada. 
BUSINESS BITS. 
T. J. Dwveh, Cornwall, Orange County, N. Y.- Summer and autumn 
catalogue of strawberries, celery, cabbage and cauliflower plants. Mr. 
Dwyer gives due space to the Timbrell, which, as we have often said, 
Is a splendid late variety. 
A Connecticut subscriber asks where he can get tools suitable for 
ditching for drain tile. A catalogue of these goods can be had by 
sending a request for It to Jackson Bros., Albany, N. V. This Arm also 
manufactures a flrst-class quality of drain tiles. 
Eluwanqeh & BA HUY, Rochester, N. Y.—Autumn catalogue of 
strawberry plants, Holland bulbs and specialties. A list of the best 
of the new and the best of the old varieties of strawberries—layer or 
pot-grown. Hyacinths, tulips, narcissi, lilies etc. Also an excel¬ 
lent list of meritorious novelties and specialties among fruit trees 
and small fruits. Our readers must not forget the Columbian goose¬ 
berry Introduced by this Arm. 
THE PROSPECT. 
It has just been decided in Belgium that henceforth 
two-thirds of the Senators must be elected by the direct 
vote of the people. Although, owing to the predomi¬ 
nating importance of the currency and tariff questions 
in this country, the proposed election of United States 
Senators by direct popular vote has of late been but 
little agitated before the public, its advocates are by 
no means discouraged or silenced. Indeed there is a 
growing party who go still further and strenuously 
urge the total abolition not oniy of the Senate of the 
United States, but of those of all the States likewise. 
They declare that a free government in which the 
popular voice and popular rights are supieme cannot 
exist in safety so long as an imitation House of Lords, 
originally foisted on the people by politicians who 
wanted our government modeled on that of Great 
Britain, is permitted to interfere with the wishes and 
welfare of the people. They maintain that Senates 
are unrepublican in principle and that daily experi¬ 
ence shows they are a menace to popular liberty. Simi¬ 
lar opinions have long been in vogue in the Old World, 
but on both sides of the Atlantic they have hitherto 
had little weight with the statesmen who form new 
republics, such as that of Brazil, or modify the consti¬ 
tutions of new or old monarchies, like those of Bel¬ 
gium or Germany. j j j 
An exceptionally high tariff on any product is such 
a temptation to smuggling and other forms of dis¬ 
honest importation, that the government loses enor¬ 
mous amounts through evasion of the import duties. 
Tobacco is a notable case in point. Official statistics 
lately presented to the Customs Investigating Com¬ 
mittee at New York prove that the National revenue 
loses from five to six million dollars a year through 
frauds by importers of leaf tobacco. Under the former 
tariff, the duties on leaf, stemmed and not stemmed, 
were respectively $1 and 75 cents per pound. On the 
unstemmed tobacco this amounted to upwards of 75 
per cent of its value, and this was the kind mainly 
imported. Under pressure, chiefly from the tobacco 
growers of the country, the McKinley tariff raised 
the duties on stemmed and unstemmed leaf respec¬ 
tively to .12 and $2 75 per pound. Straightway an era 
of smuggling through Mexico and Canada and directly 
from Cuba to the Southern coast, began, and by con¬ 
nivance with the customs officials at the various ports, 
but chiefly in New York, vast quantities of under¬ 
valued leaf tobacco were imported, while large quan¬ 
tities of the high-priced product were mixed up with 
tobacco used for filling, and dutiable only at 35 cents 
per pound. Apart from the heavy money losses to the 
government, the tobacco trade has suffered severely 
under the new dispensation. Large numbers of small 
manufacturers have been driven out of the business, 
because unable to pay such high duties in advance on 
their raw material; then the trade has become demor¬ 
alized, as manufacturers who honestly pay the duties 
cannot compete with rivals who unscrupulously evade 
them, and, finally, the producers have received only a 
comparatively smaTl proportion of the benefit they ex¬ 
pected from the McKinley increase of the tariff on 
leaf tobacco. j. ^ ^ 
Ever since the enactment of the law of 1793, which 
required the division of estates equally among the chil¬ 
dren of the testator,the land in France has been steadily 
subdivided into smaller and smaller parcels, so that 
now there are millions of small farms or plots whose 
owners cannot cultivate them in the best and most 
economical manner, as few kinds of labor-saving ma¬ 
chinery are used, and the soil is generally cultivated 
in a primitive manner. For years this has been a 
strong objection to the system ; but a stronger and 
probably a more effectual one has just been pro¬ 
pounded by a congress of statesmen, scientists, econo¬ 
mists and others, which has just finished its sessions 
in Paris, and whose object was the consideration of 
repopulating the country. For generations France 
has been the most backward nation in Europe as re¬ 
gards the increase of population, and for a number of 
years the number of inhabitants has been at a stand¬ 
still, and the nation has fallen from the second to the 
fourth place in population among European coun¬ 
tries. The main point brought out during the Con¬ 
gress, however, was that the male births are 
twice as many in Germany as in France, and hence 
the conclusion was inevitable that the classes from 
which the first line of defense of the army is drawn, 
would not be more than half as numerous in 1900 in 
France as in the Fatherland. Mainly on account of 
this startling military consideration, public attention 
has been strongly aroused, and the chief reason 
assigned for the gradual male depopulation of the 
country was the above system of land inheritance. 
Rather than divide up his farm of, say, ten acres 
among half a dozen children, thus going a long 
way towards consigning them all to poverty, the 
farmer refrains from having a family, and 52 per cent 
of the population of France are farmers. The Con¬ 
gress strongly objected to the universal habit of 
bringing up children on the bottle, and to the ione- 
child fad which has long been a craze among fashion¬ 
able French society mothers ; but it embodied its 
opinions in these three resolutions: 1. The imposition 
of a tax on men having no children, legitimate or 
illegitimate ; 2, a diminution of the land tax in pro¬ 
portion to the size of families ; and, 3, the legal author¬ 
ization of a parent to leave the bulk of his property 
to one son. These are to be formulated in a bill to be 
at once submitted to the legislature, and the excep¬ 
tional system of land inheritance of France is likely 
soon to be a thing of the past. 
