NEw York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 185 
breeds of dairy animals has emphasized the fact that a pound of 
fat in rich milk is produced at a lower cost than in poorer milk. 
It would not be difficult to show that it would be easily possible 
within a few years to increase the yield of our annual cheese- 
product by an amount equal in value to one million dollars, with 
fewer animals and at an actually less cost than at present. 
V. STUDIES RELATING TO THE CURING OR RIPENING OF 
CHEDDAR CHEESE. 
At the very beginning of our cheese investigation in 1891 some 
attention was given to a study of the process of cheese-ripening, 
the process by which green cheese, which is practically flavorless, 
rubber-like and insoluble, is changed into a palatable, well-flavored, 
digestible and soluble substance. The cheeses first made were ex- 
amined at intervals of one, three and five weeks to determine (1) 
the total loss of weight in ripening, (2) influence of ripening on (a) 
fat, (b) casein and (c) acidity. In 1892 cheeses were made 
under varying conditions and changes were studied at the end of 
five months. Comparison was made (1) of cheese made from milk 
containing added cream and cheese made from partially skimmed 
milk; (2) of cheese in the manufacture of which we used three and 
nine ounces of rennet; (3) of cheese containing an excessive amount 
of moisture (42.9 per ct.) and cheese containing normal amounts. 
A more thorough study was made of the changes taking place in 
the nitrogen compounds.” 
It was realized that temperature and atmospheric moisture play 
so important a part in the process of cheese-ripening that work 
was necessarily suspended until adequate provisions could be made 
for controlling temperature and moisture in specially constructed 
curing-rooms. These conditions were not available until 1808, 
when the study was renewed. Our equipment then consisted of 
six rooms in which the temperature could be controlled with a vari- 
ation of only one or two degrees from a given point. Our studies 
were made with cheese kept at 55°, 60°, 65°, 70°, 75° and 80° F. 
The moisture was usually kept between 70 and 8o per ct. of moist- 
ure. In special experiments, cheese was cured in a saturated at- 
mosphere, and in some cases were covered with paraffin. In Bul- 
letin 207 (1901) the results are given of studies carried on for 
™* Bul. 37, pp. 705-7IT. 
SeDUls 54 DD. 201-200) 
