EXHIBITION OF 1868. 
439 
far as it could be, and every effort made to work up all the cream into the 
cheese. The best manufacturers in the country, the English shippers, and 
the great army of cheese dealers, insisted that fine cheese demanded the 
largest amount of cream, and that the richer the milk the better the cheese. 
I was the first to assail this principle and show it to be fallacious. I showed 
from actual experiment—from chemical analysis—from the whey vats of fac¬ 
tories covered with cream almost thick enough to bear a man, that fine cheese 
did not depend altogether upon the amount of butter in its composition. So 
prejudiced are people who have been long engaged in a specialty, and edu¬ 
cated up to a certain notion, that I doubt whether the dairymen of New York 
could have been induced to entertain the least respect for such teaching, had 
not the said process in cheese-making, which I had some years before intro¬ 
duced, proved correct and became generally adopted, saving to the country 
millions of dollars. 
Perhaps a word of explanation should be given in regard to this so-called 
acid process. Up to 1854, the cheese of America was manufactured by pro¬ 
cesses having no fixed principles. The thermometer for testing the heat in 
the various manipulations was only in occasional use. The impression uni¬ 
versally prevailed that the milk, the curds, and the whey, during the whole 
process of manipulation and manufacture, should be kept perfectly sweet. 
Any perceptible acidity developed by accident during the process was 
regarded by cheese makers as a calamity entailing losses. As a consequence 
the great bulk of American cheese was soft, spongy, extremely liable to get 
out of flavor, quick of decay, and of no character in the English market, ex¬ 
cept as poor, bad, and indifferent. Immense losses were from time to time 
made by the dealers handling it, and although some prime dairies were made 
by those who had had a life-long experience, they were not able to explain 
the principles by whicli their success was attained. I had been experiment¬ 
ing in milk, with a view of fixing upon some different stand-point as a guide 
in cheese making. Instead of guessing at temperature by introducing the 
hand into the vat, the range of heat securing the best results was marked by 
the mercury. From this point-the changes in the process became a study, 
and the fact soon made itself apparent that cheese making was purely a 
chemical process ; that it was better to develop further chemical change in 
the vats, while the curds could be under immediate observation and control, 
than to trust the necessary changes and transformation, to be perfected after 
they were put to press, or carried to th e cheese-room. I found that by the 
use of acid (sharp sour whey) in the milk, or by allowing the curds and whey 
to stand until aciditji was developed to a certain point, the watery portions 
of the milk were more easily expelled, and the curds assumed a more solid 
texture, while flavor, mellowness, and flakiness could be more easily secured. 
It took much writing and much talking to introduce this system among. 
American cheese manufacturers, and perhaps it never would have been intro¬ 
duced, had not the cheese made by a few experimenters, trying this process, 
been sought after and commanded extraordinary prices. It was not until 
