62 STORRS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 
of Oidium upon the surface of a cheese usually becomes com- 
plicated by the development of surface bacteria which becomes 
possible at about that time on account of the reduction of the 
acidity. <A final conclusion as to whether or not Oidium lactis 
alone produces the flavor will depend upon an exhaustive test 
of those bacteria so constantly associated with it. The bacteri- 
ologists, as will be seen later, have shown that few bacteria ex- 
cept lactic species are found within the cheese and none of them 
seem able to produce flavor. The production of flavor by bac- 
terial action would then depend entirely upon such bacteria as 
might grow upon the surface of the cheese. In addition to the 
evidences already mentioned it is found that a cheese entirely 
covered by a good growth of the Camembert mold evaporates 
water rapidly and develops a hard, dry rind, so dry as to obstruct 
the entrance of bacteria from without. In certain of such 
cheeses, into which Oidium was inoculated at the time of mak- 
ing, the characteristic flavors finally appeared without the asso- 
ciation of the reddish slimy surface so commonly seen. Further 
many cheeses made and ripened entirely without Oidium lactis 
have in their later stages become covered with bacteria which 
produced the surface appearances so often described, but failed 
entirely to develop the typical flavor. In the light of the bac- 
teriological proof that the interior of the cheese is practically a 
pure culture of lactic organisms, the production in some cases 
of both the flavor and texture of properly ripened Camembert 
cheese without a rich surface growth of bacteria, is very good 
circumstantial evidence that Oidium has some function in pro- 
ducing the flavor. 
A cheese inoculated with Camembert Penicillium will not 
begin to show delicate white threads of mold for about three 
days. The mold develops rapidly from that time until by the 
tenth day (sometimes by the seventh or eighth) the cheese is 
usually covered entirely by a pure white cottony mass of threads 
forming a layer possibly one-eighth of an inch deep. With the 
ripening of the spores or conidia the color gradually changes 
to a greenish gray. This change is completed during the 
third week usually, and no growth seems to take place after- 
ward. During the later stages of mold growth large drops of 
water are excreted by the mold and evaporate from the surface. 
The mold therefore has a rather definite period and course of 
