8 EDUCATION IN DAIRY FARMING, AND 



already referred to, combined with those appertaining to a large 

 home farm, a fine herd of cattle, and the personal aid of Lord 

 Vernon himself, who takes the deepest interest in everything 

 connected with dairy education. Such a school should be a 

 leading one in the country, and provided with the means of 

 theoretical as well as practical instruction, also for research in 

 the department of milk science. 



Cheshire Dairy School. 



The first English practical dairy school, unconnected with a 

 factory or with any public body, was established by a Limited 

 Liability Company comjjosed of farmers and a few of the lead- 

 ing landowners of the county, at a farm-house, the property of 

 Captain Cotton, M.P. (a good friend to dairy farming), at Wor- 

 leston, near Nantwich. The primary object of the school was 

 to illustrate and teach the best known methods of making 

 Cheshire cheese, and to effect an improvement in the butter- 

 making of the county, which, as is generally the case in cheese- 

 making districts, has been very inferior in the past. In order 

 to render the teaching easy of application, it is conducted upon 

 similar lines to those pursued in the best farm-house dairies. 

 The committee appointed Mr George Willis, a member of a 

 well-known good cheese-making family, as manager and teacher 

 of cheese-making ; and Miss Mary Connell, a leading pupil of the 

 Munster Dairy School, as teacher of butter-making. During the 

 first year the 40 pujoils who passed through the school remained 

 various periods of from one to seven weeks. Li some cases imme- 

 diate and valuable results were obtained by these persons upon 

 their return to their own dairies, and the whole of the pupils WTote 

 in the most distinct terms of the satisfaction with which they had 

 received their instruction. In the past year the school opened in 

 April, and during the season 63 pupils passed through it. It 

 should be mentioned that the teaching is chiefl}^ in connection 

 with actual practice, cheese or butter, or both, being made daily. 

 The work is performed with the assistance of the pupils, who are 

 shown how mistakes may be corrected and good results obtained ; 

 in the butter-making depot practical observations are made, and 

 the superiority of the best systems shown; such, for instance, as 

 that of churning cream in the place of milk. The use of the 

 separator is taught, and a good demand for the produce of the 

 dairy has been created. The milk which passed through the 

 school dairy in 1887 amounted to 38,000 gallons; in all, 12 tons 

 16 cwt. of cheese was made, which sold at a good price. The 

 school also made and sold 2582 lbs. of butter, which averaged 

 Is. 3d. per lb., and 350 lbs. of whey butter; a large quantity of 

 whey and milk was also sold. The pupils paid in fees £95, 



