As might be expected, the amount of the product and the amount of money invested have increased more rapidly than the number of men employed, indicating that, as in most manufacturing industries, labor-saving devices and other improvements have reduced the proportion of physical labor required. As regards the kind of cheese made in the United States, the figures show that of the amount produced in 1905 approximately three-fourths was what is known to the trade as standard factory cheese, or what is usually known to the retail purchaser as American cheese. A very small per cent—1.1 per cent—was skim-milk cheese, the remainder being American modifications of certain important foreign brands, Neufchâtel, Camembert, and others. From the standpoint of the retail dealer, cheese is important because it is a convenient article to handle. Its percentage of nutrients being high and its percentage of water low, it is not bulky. It is comparatively easy, too, to preserve in good condition. The difficulty of cutting exact amounts called for by customers may be considered the chief inconvenience. Efforts have been made to obviate this difficulty by making small cheeses. Experiments have been reported from the Oregon Experiment Station[2] on the canning of cheese in pound lots; and from the Wisconsin Experiment Station[3] in making cheese prints like those in which butter is commonly sold. In some of the factories cheeses weighing about 5 pounds and having the same shape as the larger cheeses are made. These are convenient for use in families where a large amount of cheese is eaten, and furthermore cheese in such form dries out and spoils less quickly and easily than cheese cut in wedge-shaped slices, as it usually is when sold by the pound. A convenient way of keeping and using such cheese is given on page 11. The sale of cheese in pots is another way of overcoming the difficulty of cutting exact amounts. Cheese thus prepared is, as a rule, softened by the addition of butter fat or other fat, with the idea of making it of such consistency that it can be used like soft cheeses. There is something to be said also of the value of cheese to that not inconsiderable number of individuals who must occasionally cater for themselves—those men and women in business life, for example, who find it convenient neither to carry lunches nor to go to restaurants. For these, cheese offers a convenient way of supplying the necessary protein, for it can usually be obtained in good condition in any neighborhood. Combined with crackers, some of the ready-cooked cereals, or bread, and with fruit, it makes a fairly well-balanced meal. FOOTNOTES: [1] U. S. Dept. Agr., Yearbook 1910, p. 359. [2] Oregon Sta. Bul. 78. [3] Wisconsin Sta. Rpt. 1901, p. 132; U. S. Dept. Agr., Farmers’ Bul. 156. CHEESE MAKING.