Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1903-06-08
IN BUTTER AND CHEESE
Interesting Investigations to be
Undertaken This Summer at the
Massachusetts Institute of Tech
noIogy-seIecting and cultiVatins
Bacteria.

: household necessity. Only within
very recent years, however, has there
been any visible hope that way may
yet be found to postpone souring for
an indefinite period, without even the
necessity of cold storage. During
these recent years the modern science
of bacteriology has discovered the
secret of this inconvenient phenom-
,enon; the dairyman no longer blames
the cow for producing a substance
| that will inevitably curdle but curses
a goodly number of bacteria that get
into the milk afterward and sour it by
the production Of certain chemical
changes.
These bacteria are so numerous that
they have not yet been completely
: investigated, although the subject has
/ been under careful investigation in
many continental laboratories and. on
this side of the water, much has been
ALREADY accomplished in the labora-
tories of Wesleyan university, the
university of Wisconsin, and the
Massachusetts Institute of Tech
lnology. The bacteriologist and the
dairyman really work hand in hand in
the improvement of modern dairy pro-
ducts, for the bacteriologist is
gradually finding the scientific why
land wherefore of various methods
that the dairymen have evolved
Through centuries of practical ex-
lperience. But practical experience in
the dairy has always given uneven re-
lsults and the direct value of the new
partnership lies i'm the gradual
elimination of everything except the
KINDLY disposed toward the milk pro-
ducer. A series of Investigations of
milk bacteria, for example, is to be
Icarried on this summer at the Massa-
Ichusetts Institute of Technology that
may or may not enable the dairyman
10 Offset the unfriendly efforts of the
little heterogeneous that sour his
milk, but will unquestionably add
imuch to his knowledge Of these same
micro-Organisms and therefore con-
siderably advance the dairy business
toward this much desired achieve
ment
Even with the general knowledge
nowadays of the universal presence
of these bacteria. many of them in
furious to mankind but a greater
number doing their work for his
Idirect or indirect benefit, probably
flew persons outside the ranks of
ldairymen and psychologists realize
how important tney are in the market
ing of milk and especially in its evolu-
ton into butter or cheese. There are.
indeed, comparatively few bacteria in
the milk until it reaches the air on
its way from the COW to the milk pan.
This little journey is long enough TO
admit a large number of micro
lorganisms and the milk itself is so ex-
cellent a place for their growth that
they increase with marvellous rapidity.
THE dairyman finds in them a two
fold character; roughly speaking,
they are a curse to the milk seller
and blessing to the makers of cheese
and butter. If no bacteria got into
the milk it would probably remain
sweet indefinitely, while, on the other
hand, except for some of these same
bacteria humanity would probably
never have acquired its taste for
bread and butter or its fondness for
cheese sandwiches.
The relation, therefore. between the
meteorological laboratory and the
modern dairyman has been of increas-
ing Importance ever since science dis
covered these wonderful little organ
isms and began to devise means of
separating one kind from another and
so studying their individual opera
tiOns. And in no other industry has
this partnership of scientific study
and practical experience been of more
importance than in the big modern
dairies. Souring of milk, which had
been long considered a normal prop
erty of the milk itself, has been
proved to result from the action of
many different kinds of bacteria, all
of which convert the milk sugar in
lpan of milk into Tactic acid. which in
turn imparts a sour taste to the milk
and eventually makes it curdle. 1t
WAS found that the more bacteria re-
moved from milk by the careful
processes of laboratory experiment
the less likely was the milk TO curdle.
other bacteria have been discovered
that spoil the milk in various ways
(which had always been attributed by
the dairyman to circumstances be-
yond their personal control. And the
net result of the discoveries so far
made have been practically to elimi-
nate many of these bacteria by
greater carefulness in the conditions
under which the milk is produced.
It is a cruious fact that whereas
modern bacteriology is constantly
busted with the problem of keeping
the bad" bacteria out of the milk
that is intended to fill the worlds