West Country Cheeses. 25 



more is to be learnt on both these subjects than people have any 

 idea of. It seems certainly strange that while the farmers 

 abroad and in our colonies, who depend on batter-making — a 

 much less lucrative business than milk selling — appreciate the 

 enoi'mous benefits that have resulted from the establishment 

 of milk recording and milk control societies, our farmers 

 at home will not try a system which would certainly tend to 

 increase their profits and at the same time improve their cattle ; 

 but such is the way of the English farmer, and it will take 

 even more than the promise of assistance from the Development 

 Funds to make him see the importance of " waking up " and 

 profiting by the establishment of milk recording and other 

 kindred societies. 



Ernest Mathews. 



Little Shardeloes, 



Amersham. 



WEST COUNTRY CHEESES. 



1.— SINGLE AND DOUBLE GLOUCESTER CHEESE. 



Those who remember the old cheese-making days in Glouces- 

 tershire, or recall the stories of still earlier periods which have 

 come down to them, are apt to talk of it as a dying industry, 

 and it must be admitted that the output of this variety no 

 longer approaches, in any degree, that of former times. 



Two causes are probably at work to account for this fact — 

 the first, and more important, being the constantly growing 

 demand for milk in all towns, and the comparative facilities 

 for sending it long distances by rail. 



The second reason, though less direct, is, no doubt, a 

 contributing factor to a not inconsiderable extent. In these 

 modern daj^s we do not accept with the same amount of 

 calmness and patience, as did our grandmothers, the neces- 

 sity for close attention, which might almost ])e called drudgery, 

 required in the dairy where cheese is made, " Sundays and 

 Aveek-days," for six or eight months in the year. The women 

 of our farming households have fallen back upon milk-selling 

 as a convenient and ready means of escape from the more 

 exacting work at the cheese tub. But when we are told that 

 the quality has deteriorated, in conjunction with the falling oif 

 in quantity, we join issue with the detractors. Those who 

 declare that the cheese of to-day cannot compare in flavour and 

 richness with the Double Gloucester of fifty years ago are safe 



