UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 89 



stood that word at first ; for I find that it means 

 a kind of dairy, something like that described 

 to us by our Savoyard friends last winter. The 

 person by whom the fruitiere is managed receives 

 their milk daily from all the neighbouring 

 peasants ; he sells the cream, and butter, 

 and makes the cheese ; and at the end of the 

 season pays the contributors either in cheeses or 

 money. He keeps an exact account, not only of 

 the quantity of milk brought in, but to prevent 

 fraud, such as mixing it with water, he ascertains 

 its quality by a kind of hydrometer, or floating 

 gauge. Persons detected in cheating are struck 

 out of the book, and lose what they had already 

 contributed. The fruitiere man who manages the 

 business and keeps the accounts, is paid by a 

 small per centage on each cheese. 



This plan is chiefly adopted in those parts of 

 the country where the cattle are taken in summer 

 to pasture in the mountains ; the farmers confide 

 their cows to a man who lives in a chalet, such 

 as Madeleine mentioned, and spends night and 

 day in milking the cows, and in making and 

 turning the cheeses. 



The same practice has been introduced into 

 Piedmont and Lombardy. All the dairies in 

 which the Parmesan cheeses are made, are 

 supplied in this manner. The meadows of Lom- 

 bardy, in the vicinity of the Po, are the most 

 fertile in the world : being constantly watered, 



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