The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-02-10
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

i SeAtucHt VI WHlcu IS the pTOleIHous or nitrogenous substance, casein, or more simply, cheese is the curd of milk, in- cluding principally the casein and fat, coagulated drained and pressed into solid form.
 Cheese being thus a compound sub stance of no definite composition. is found in commerce of many different varieties and qualities and such quail ities are generally recognized by the names of the localities in which they are manufactured. Not only this. but the various countries have certain kinds which ar ewell known in the orld markets
 The principal distinctions in cheese arise from differences in the compost tion and condition of the milk oper- ated upon. from variations in the prep laration and curing, and from the use of milk of other animals besides the COW. as, for example, the goat and eve. and in many Asiatic countries the water buffalo. an ugly beast with great flat horns and hair much like bristles.
 Not only this, but in general there are three well known classfications. hard or soft cheese. cream cheeee. and sage cheese. There is also great va riety in flavor and surely the question of odor cannot be ignored when we l arr ir T German offering, which smells to heaven like their acts in Belgium, or the somewhat milder Erie of their con querors and neighbors across the Rhine. Then also arises the matter of color
 Nearly all cheese, however is made from cows milk, and originally it was a product of the farm, but, like every thing else, it has been systematized and organized until at present an overwhelming part of it is made in fac tories especially built and fitted for the purpose. Before 1850 here in Amer ica practically al. the cheese made in the country was a farm product, while I | try, for now only small part of the {, cheese used in the United States is imported.
 | In the middle of the nineteenth cen tury about 100000, 900 pounds of cheese was made yearly in the United States. I and all of it in farm dairies but at the i of ba annual production was around O0,000,- 900 pounds, and 96 or 97 per cent of this was made in factories. give these figures to show the rapidity with which cheese making has been trans ferred bodily from the domain of the domestic arts to that of manufacture The present census when completed will give facts still further showing that America has gone into the busi- ness on huge scale
 Now. there was a reason for the shifting of the cheese making from the farm to the factory. For genera tions, perhaps for centuries the ques- tion has been discussed as to why there should be so large proportion of bad and inferior cheese and so small proportion of really good cheese made even in the farmhouses throughout England as we'll as in other countries. It has been shown that the fault could not be charged to either earelessness or the lack of skill on the part of the dairymaids.
 
 It developed under scrutiny that many instances were found in which painstaking dairymaids in the cleanest of dairies, failed to produce even sec ond-rate cheese, and yet others made excellent cheese under commonplace conditions as to skill and equipment. 1 and with small regard for the cleanli- i ness of the dairy The explanation was long a mystery, found to be in the domain of ferments. for it is now known that whilst various micro or ganisms, which in many dairies have free access to the milk, have ruined an incalculable quantity of cheese, and butter also Neither cheese nor butter of first rate quality can be made with out the aid of tactic acid bacilli.
 
 may be boring you. but follow me ! a little bit until I develop a strange | situation that came to light in a test l in Englapd Two most painstaking | and skillful dairymaids who had tried | in vain to make good cheese from the | richest of milk in the cIeanest If 1 daires in Nofth Lancashire. upon. ad- vice were persuaded to use the fer | ment, and the result was revelation and transformation, for ever after- wards they were able to produce ex- | cellent prize winning cheese. By the i addition of starter" in the form of | small quantity of sour milk, whey | or buttermilk. in an advanced stage of i fermentation, the development of acid ity in the main body of milk was ac- celerated. It has been. ascertained that | the starter is practically a culture of | bacteria, which. if desired may be ob- tained as pure culture.
 Now l may be aiding and abetting an international dispute. for the the ories formerly advanced as explana- tory of the ripening changes in cheese were suggestive rather than based upon experimental data, and it is only since 1896 that careful scientific stu dies of the problem have been made Of the two existing theories. the one.