THE CAMEMBERT TYPE OF SOFT CHEESE. 65 
been unable to find one. We have, however, found bacteria 
that produce flavors that remind us of the American Brie, and 
of other flavors associated with some samples of cheese, but none 
that give the typical Camembert flavor. We are at present 
inclined to think that this flavor must be sought in some other 
line as has been shown in the previous pages. 
The study of the growth of bacteria in the cheese during the 
ripening is very interesting and significant. We have studied 
this problem in cheeses made with and without a lactic starter. 
The cheeses made with a lactic starter are more uniform in 
ripening. Experience has shown that we can with greater cer- 
tainty obtain a first-class cheese if we use such a starter. For 
this reason the study of the bacteria in such cheeses is especially 
significant. The results are very simple for they are an exact 
repetition of what occurs in souring milk as has been already 
shown. (Conn and Hsten, Rep. Storrs Sta. 1901-2.) At the 
outset there is commonly a small variety of bacteria present, 
which develop for a short time. But in a few hours the lactic 
bacteria get the upper hand and all other species practically dis- 
appear. After about two days the cheeses contain a practically 
pure culture of lactic bacteria. These increase in numbers until 
they are about 900,000,000 per cubic centimeter, and remain 
at about this number during the ripening, somewhat falling 
off toward the end. In these cheeses there is no growth of 
liquefying bacteria to which might be attributed such digestive 
action. ‘There are commonly a few of these at the start but 
they never multiply so that they become abundant enough to 
lead to the supposition that they are likely to play any part 
in the ripening. Moreover, as mentioned above, the ripening 
of these cheeses proceeds from the surface inward, a fact that 
indicates that the ripening agents are chiefly or wholly on the 
surface. 
‘These facts are rendered more significant by the bacteriological 
study of one set of twenty cheeses that were made without lactic 
starter. In these cheeses the lactic bacteria never obtained such 
a complete ascendency over the other species as where a starter 
was used. While they became very abundant we found that 
certain liquefying bacteria multiplied and remained in consider- 
able number to the end of the ripening. The presence of large 
numbers of such enzyme-producing bacteria during the ripening 
