HINTS FOR CHEESEMAKERS.

North Otago Times, 3 November 1906, Page 1 (Supplement)

HINTS FOR CHEESEMAKERS.

If a good cheese is desired it is abso-; lutely necessary as a first condition j that tho milk should bo handled in a i cleanly manner. The milk when in' the udder of the cow is normally freefrom bacteria, although lactic acid) germs can bo detected ontsido or even \ occasionally just inside the teat. Ifj as nature ovidontly originally intended j. tho milk should go directly from the; teat to the month, of the young ani-; mal, no possibility of contamination: would exist. But ths «ir of the cow-; shed swarms with bacteria, and immediately on the exposure of tho milki to tho atmosphere these bacteria seize! only too readily on a substance which j seems to bo specially formed to servo! them as an admirablo habitat. * • Happily tho bacteria in the atmos-l phero are not all o fthci injurious vari-; oty, so that their presence in tho milk i. if not iiitoo great abundance is often! no sorious drawback. Yet thero is al-i ways the probability of the injurious '< bacteria being present, and to avoid j ;ovil results pails of milk should never! .bo left in tho cowshed, as the atmos- i phero of shippons and byres is so full, { oi organisms of the undesirable varie- ; , tics that immediate removal of tho. jmilk is absolutely necessary. A sur--|face of milk exposed for only a shortj timo absorbs bacteria from all the air! .-that comes in contact with it, and: Isinco tho milk itself has no selective; : property tho injurious bacteria are j bound to enter sooner or Inter if thci ■milk bo left exposed. j ! Seeing also that somo milkers arc! not oyer scrupulously clean, another; possible source of contamination is atj onco evident. It is a very common 1 habit, but nono the less undesirable I '. on _ that account, for tho milker to' I moisten his hands by dipping them into j the milk in the pail. The necessity of •dropping such a habit if the milk is to! bo kept absolutely sweet and pure is ; but too evident. Even with such pre-1 : cautions it not infrequently happens': that dust, scales, and other undesir- : able matter from tho cow's udder find ' their way into tho milk \ '■ It can well bo admitted that- the; I keeping of milk absolutely freo from; ! bacterial contamination is not possible.:, I Yet the nearer the approach to sucha state of perfection tho better will be i' | tho results which aro obtained on tho J i products from the milk whether they j bo cream, butler, or cheese. \ All possible sources of impurity must j bo unwearyingly guarded against, and ', it is only by invariably being watch-i ful and alert in this direction that the! apparently unaccountable failures which j in somo dairies continuo to repeat' themselves can be avoided. ', Alill;in(t slimilfl lin nnrfftrmpfl nsi

quickly as possible, for oven whilo the milk is streaming from the teat to the pail it is absorbing the ever present organisms; when the milking is finished the pails of milk should at onco

, i be removed from ■ the cowsheds. The ' oleanest milk from the bacteriological , point of viow is probably that which is ' obtained from the cows whilo out at ' pasture. It is this habit of milkfcig ' in the pastures which is happily pro- ,'■ valent in some counties, to which' is : owing tho cxoellenco of the products : obtained from milk which starts its . career in so happy a manner. Tho sources of supply of theso per--1 sistcnt bacteria are not difficult to disi cover, The decomposition of dung and I urine is essentially favourable to their i rapid reproduction. Some of tho bacj teria aro associated with tho fermenta--1 tion of urine and the production of j carbonate of ammonia. This volatile' i substance is the cause of the smell ! which is always noticeable in stables I and other similar places, more especial-■-ly in hot weather, for tho heat is | favourable alike ' to the increased growth of bacteria and to_ the augmented rapidity of the chemical decomposition "which is set tip. Another source arises from the pre ducts of the breathing of the animals themselves, Decomposing organio matter is always being given out with the I breath, and hence wnere, .as in byres, a number of animals' are in the same building with a supply of air none too large and often very rarely renewed by efficient ventilation, the jatmosphere soon becomes overloaded with the decomposing animal matter and the ac-' I companying bacteria, and the proporj tion of tho unhealthy gas-carbon dioxj ido inoreases enormously, the oxygen is j lossened in proportion and the "tinI healthiness of the cattle living in such ; an atmosphere b only ono of the evil ! results which follow Other bacteria - yi the air in <»]lMtMß.&o.s-

.which canso the fermentation of ce ; !- lulono, .others protlncs the bitterness in butter, and again there is always present ono .upon whoso beneficial action we have to depend for the souring of the milk—the lactid acid bacterium.

! With regard to cheosomakiiig it has i long been known as a matter of observation and practice that the best cheese ! is produced from milk given by cows | which aro on natural feeding,' that it, [are allowed to set their own food iu j tho shape of grass in the fields, This doubtless is tho cause of tho beginning of tho cheesomaking season at this part of tho year. When during other seasons tho cows are fed on quantities of cako and artificial foods, some olfecfc is produced on the milk which in neiiriy every case makes it unsuitable for good cheesemaking, the cheese obtained seoms to have at decided tendency to go wrong in some way or other, and even.at tho best is deficient in flavour. As to tho localities in which the best chceso can bo produced, this seems also to bo largely a matter, of good pasture, sinco it is possible to produco . practically any variety, of cheese in any part of the country where good pasture exists with equally good results 'as to tho quality of tho cheese obtained.

There is naturally a local bias often oxisting in favour of tho chceso in somo particular district, and the idea is often fairly general that a special ! sort of cheese cannot bo mado of equal quality out of tho district with which its manufacture may long havo been connected.