Report on the Exhibition of Cheese at Chester. 401) 



Mr. Bate, of Tarporley, Cheshire, says : — 



" Cheshire cheeses, as a whole, are more perishable now than they were 

 twenty years ago. They are made cooler * to leave them open grained, and so 

 that they may get ready earlier. This may be more lucrative than the old 

 plan of keeping cheese a year ; but we have still many fine dairies of cheese 

 made on the old plan, and which, when sold, fetch the highest price in the 

 London market. I am not disposed to say that cheese is worse than it was 

 twenty years ago, although the increase of quantity through bone-manuring is 

 very great. The richest cheese is made in September or October : the milk is 

 then smaller in quantity, and is so rich that some cream is generally skimmed 

 from it before making it into cheese. By so doing there is less difficulty in 

 getting the cheese to stand ; as the weather is then getting too cool for clearing 

 well the curd of its whey. The fine large open-coated mity cheeses you call 

 honeycomb are only of great value when they go hlue mould all through ; then 

 they are equal to Stilton. It would not do for this style to prevail ; they have 

 to be kept so long and they lose so much weight, that they must sell high. 

 The best cheese made is firm and imperisliable, keeping in the farmer's room 

 until the year after it is made, or longer if required. The texture will be 

 solid but not tough, and the flavour _;?ne. It may be brought to the table 

 for weeks and perhaps months after being cut, without getting dry or becoming 

 woi'se from exposure to the air. To obtain this character of cheese by a three 

 or four months' process is what we want." 



Thirdly, Remarks and Suggestions for the future exhibitions of 

 Cheese, and for promoting improvements in its mamfacture. 



Mr. Corderoy says : — 



" That the exhibition of new cheese so early as July offers very little oppor- 

 tunity for the exercise of a sound judgment, because it encourages farmers 

 to force cheese to an appearance of ripeness by artificial means, and also en- 

 courages an unfair estimate of value by the judges. The prizes at Chester were 

 awarded on the avowed principle of giving them for the best and ripest cheese 

 at the time, though it was openly acknowledged that these would deteriorate, 

 while others, put as second best or passed over, would improve. The remedj'' 

 I beg to suggest is — (1.) To defer the exhibition of new cheese till the end of 

 September or October, by which time it would have a fair degree of ripeness 

 by natural means. (2.) To agree upon a standard of quality, colom-, and 

 flavour. If this cannot from any circumstances be procured in Cheshire, 

 then a really fine Cheddar cheese should be selected, which the judges should 

 agree has all the characteristics of fine cheese. (3.) Ten or twenty cheeses 

 should be exhibited instead of four. (4.) It should be an instruction to the 

 judges to have regard to the condition of the cheese, and to the probability of 

 its keeping sound in the coat and at the edges with fair treatment. 



" These form the principal suggestions I have to make. I may add, that I 

 have a strong opinion that the large application of artificial manures during, 

 the past twenty years to the dairy districts of Cheshire, has necessitated a 

 change in the methods of making cheese — the character of the land being quite 

 changed. What the change should be I am not prepared to suggest, not being 

 so much acquainted with the process of manufacture as with the qualities of 

 cheese when made. But, before the application of these manures, perhaps 

 only one dairy in fifty became seriously deteriorated in condition ^vithout ex- 

 ternal damage ; noiv, probably, only one dairy in fifty will remain fine and 



* This term is well understood amongst the dairymaids and others in Cheshire : 

 it refers to the heat of the milk at the time of the coagulation. 



VOL. XIX. 2 E 



