Q2 STORRS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 
Two species of Penicillium, ‘‘68’’ and ‘‘31o,’’ found closely 
associated upon cheese with the Camembert Penicillium, pro- 
duced little digestion. The Roquefort Penicillium and several 
other molds often found upon Camembert cheese appeared to 
act much more rapidly than the Camembert mold itself. 
All of: these series of cultures under different conditions, 
many times have shown the same results and prove that the 
ability to digest curd is common to many species of fungi. ‘The 
species we have been led to call the Camembert Penicillium 
possesses this character in common with numerous other molds, 
many of which act more rapidly than this one. 
After the ability of several molds to digest curd is estab- 
lished, the relation of any particular mold to cheese ripening 
must be determined by the character of the products of that 
digestion and the flavors associated with it. No pure culture 
upon a medium previously sterilized by heat has given a taste 
resembling that of Camembert cheese. Cheese made and kept 
in an atmosphere of chloroform, which prevented mold and 
bacterial development, refused to ripen. Numerous cheeses 
made and not inoculated with molds have uniformly failed to 
develop the texture and flavor of Camembert cheese; although 
such cheeses have usually become covered with molds of various 
species. The type of cheese made and sold in this country as 
Isigny and Brie, and sometimes labeled Camembert, which 
always shows Oidium lactis associated with bacteria, differs 
entirely in appearance, texture, odor and flavor from Camem- 
bert; yet Oidium lactis is capable of neutralizing the acid of 
the cheese much more rapidly than the Camembert Penicillium.* 
The necessity for the presence of another agent in this ripening 
is clearly established. 
More than two thousand cheeses have been made ane ripened 
at this Station with the Camembert mold under varying con- 
ditions. Hundreds of these cheeses have shown repeatedly 
that cheese so made will assume in ripening the texture of the 
best imported article. The Camembert Penicillium, therefore, 
is seen to be able to neutralize the acid of the freshly made 
cheese and to produce the texture desired, but not the flavor. 
It remains to determine whether other molds may not be equally 

* Nevertheless the center of such a cheese remains acid fora longer time than is 
required to ripen a Camembert cheese while the texture of Camembert is not produced. 

