170 AN AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND. 



and that I cannot learn that the process of cheese-making dif 

 fers any more from, that of other districts in England or the 

 United States, than between different dairies producing cheese 

 of equal value in this district itself. 



It is by no means to be inferred, however, that the quality 

 of cheese is not affected by the process of manufacture. 

 There is no doubt that the skill and nicety of a superior 

 dairy-maid will produce cheese of a superior quality on a 

 farm of poor herbage, while an ignorant and careless one will 

 make only an inferior description, no matter what the natural 

 advantages may be. The best cheese made in the United 

 States is quite equal to the best I have tasted here, but the 

 average quality is by no means equal to the average quality 

 of Cheshire cheese. 



Superiority in the manufacture seems not to depend, how 

 ever, upon any describable peculiarities of the process, which 

 differs in no essential particular from that common in our 

 dairies. Excellence is well understood to depend greatly 

 upon extreme cleanliness in all the implements employed, 

 and upon the purity and moderate temperature of the atmo 

 sphere. Means to secure the latter are used much the same 

 as with us. Stoves and hot-water pipes are sometimes em 

 ployed in the cheese-room ; and I may mention that where 

 this is in a detached building of one story, it is considered 

 essential that it should have a thatched roof. In some cases 

 where the roof has been slated, it has been found necessary 

 in the warmest weather to remove the cheese to the cellar of 

 the farm-house. Plank shelves are more generally used, and 

 are esteemed better than stone. 



Not only is there no uniformity in the methods of the 

 different dairies to distinguish them from those of the United 

 States, but rarely in any single dairy are there any exact 

 rules with regard to the time to be employed in any parts of 



