In the press, several bags of curd may be piled together. The press should be released and the bags turned from time to time to insure even drainage. Several hours of pressing are usually required. The danger of insufficient pressing is due to the difference of texture between the worked and unworked curd. Before working, curd carrying 10 per cent excess moisture resembles the finished product sufficiently to deceive any but the experienced maker. But if this curd is transferred to the worker and to the molding machine, it is found to become soft, pasty and sticky, to lack "body," hence to make very unsatisfactory packages and to spoil very quickly. The masses of curd should come out of the press as dry and hard flat cakes. [Illustration: FIG. 16.--Working Neufchâtel.] +128. Working and salting Neufchâtel.+--The cakes of curd go from the press to the working table. Here they are broken by hand or by a butter-worker or kneading machine (Fig. 16). Salt at the rate of one and one-half pounds to 100 pounds of curd is added. If the curd is not sufficiently pressed, the masses become mushy or pasty during the working process. The working is continued until the whole mass is uniformly smooth and buttery. +129. Storage.+--The draining and working processes permit the contamination of the curd with organisms from the air and from the apparatus. These are distributed throughout the mass. Air is also worked thoroughly into the curd. Such a product spoils quickly. Distributing houses find the Neufchâtel trade uncertain in volume from day to day, hence many of them store the cheese in bulk and package only fast enough to fill orders. This minimizes the loss due to spoilage. Such curd may be packed into tubs and kept for considerable time in cold storage. If molded for the retail trade, it is more quickly perishable. When packed solidly in mass, curd is largely protected from spoilage by the exclusion of air and perhaps the quick exhaustion of free oxygen through the respiration of the micro-organisms present and by its acidity. This must be supplemented by low temperature to reduce the loss to a minimum. Even when spoilage begins, it is easily confined to the slight growth of _Oidium lactis_ or green mold and bacteria on exposed areas. These can be removed with minimum loss and damage to the mass. On the other hand, such curd molded into the commercial package of 3 to 6 ounces and wrapped in paper, with tin-foil or carton for protection, still presents enormously increased surface for the growth of aerobic forms--especially _Oidium lactis_, green mold (Roquefort mold is the usual green species) and accompanying bacteria. Curd in tubs may be kept some days; in commercial packages lowering of quality (flavor) begins almost at once.