Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 58.djvu/162

154 scientific solution of the micro-organisms for cheese ripening, and the practical application of the facts to cheese making.

As the result of these facts, many bacteriologists are engaged in the study of the problems connected with cheese ripening. Many new discoveries have been made, and various practical suggestions in cheese making have resulted from these researches. But every bacteriologist has been studying a different problem. In Holland some valuable studies of the ripening of Edam cheese have been made, but naturally, the results differ decidedly from those obtained by Swiss bacteriologists in their study of the ripening of Swiss cheeses, inasmuch as the Holland cheese itself is such a different product from that made in Switzerland. The study of cheese ripening in our own country will probably show little agreement with the researches in Europe, since our cheeses differ so much in taste from most of the continental cheeses, although they are not so very unlike the English cheeses. In short, the problems to be solved are as numerous as the varieties of cheese, and each problem has shown itself to be so complex as, thus far, almost to baffle the most patient investigation. It is true that one or two bacteriologists have announced that they have discovered the species of bacteria and molds which produce the ripening of the particular type of cheese that they have been studying, and in some cases cultures of these bacteria have been placed on the market for use in cheese making. In one case, a scientist announces that he has made many thousands of pounds of cheese by means of his artificial cultures and has met with the highest success. But, in general, these cultures have been of problematical value, none of them having, as yet, resulted in the extension of the manufacture of special types of cheeses in localities where it had been hitherto impossible.

As stated before, this country is perhaps more interested in the successful issue of these investigations than any other. Hitherto, Swiss cheeses have been made in Switzerland, Holland cheeses in Holland and all other types of cheeses in their own rather limited localities. This includes hard cheeses as well as soft. If we desire any of these products we are obliged, in the main, to import them. Certain imitations have been produced in this country, it is true; but the imitations are more in shape than in quality. If it were possible, however, for our dairymen to learn a method of making, not inferior imitations of European cheeses, but products actually their equal in flavor and quality, it is certain that an immense market would be speedily opened to them. This condition is probably dependent upon the success of the scientist in solving the problem of regulating the growth of bacteria and molds in the ripening cheese. As fast as the bacteriologist succeeds in showing how the ripening process may be so controlled as to make it possible for our dairymen to produce cheeses similar in character and equal in