[175] Fischer, Hyg. Rund., 5:573.
[176] Storch, 18 Rept. Danish Agric. Expt. Stat., 1890.
[177] Rogers Bull. 57, B. A. I. U. S. Dept Agric., 1904.
CHAPTER VIII.
BACTERIA IN CHEESE.
The art of cheese-making, like all other phases of dairying, has been developed mainly as a result of empirical methods. Within the last decade or so, the subject has received more attention from the scientific point of view and the underlying causes determined to some extent. Since the subject has been investigated from the bacteriological point of view, much light has been thrown on the cause of many changes that were heretofore inexplicable. Our knowledge, as yet, is quite meager, but enough has already been determined to indicate that the whole industry is largely based on the phenomena of ferment action, and that the application of bacteriological principles and ideas is sure to yield more than ordinary results, in explaining, in a rational way, the reasons underlying many of the processes to be observed in this industry.
The problem of good milk is a vital one in any phase of dairy activity, but it is pre-eminently so in cheese-making, for the ability to make a first-class product depends to a large extent on the quality of the raw material. Cheese contains so large a proportion of nitrogenous constituents that it is admirably suited, as a food medium, to the development of bacteria; much better, in fact, than butter.