A FARM IN THE PEAK OF DERBYSHIRE. 75 



so to speak, in the same locality ; in the latter case the cheese 

 was very fine, but not so in the former, and I was able to give 

 advice which, as I have since heard, put the former right. 

 Modern research and experiment have abundantly demon- 

 strated the fact that cheese requires acidity, in some way or 

 other acquired, to enable it to ripen properly; failing this 

 acidity, it is liable to swell and crack, and to behave in a 

 generally discreditable manner. Such is the case more espe- 

 cially on highly-farmed land, from which the cheese is more 

 liable just as the hay is to somewhat excessive fermentation. 



On poor land unimproved the difficulty of making good 

 cheese on the sweet-curd method is not by any means so 

 great ; and this it is, no doubt, that established the old-time 

 dictum, viz., " It is the poorest land which yields the best 

 cheese." 



This in all probability was frequently the case in the olden 

 times, when the why and wherefore of these things in cheese- 

 making were not understood. The old way of cheese-making 

 was completely unscientific that is, it was not practice per- 

 fected as the result of careful and repeated experiments. There 

 are still persons who say that the cheese of the last is inferior 

 to that of the first decade of the nineteenth century ; it may be 

 so possibly, though it is to the last degree unlikely. In any 

 case, we are destitute of all means of comparison ; but if analogy 

 will aid us, we may say that nowadays it is not the poorest land 

 which produces the best cheese. I have reason to believe that 

 the cheese made on the Low Fields farm in the early days of 

 my father's tenancy was better than that made later on, until 

 the time when the acid-curd secret was revealed. There was 

 undoubtedly some coincidence between the improvement of 

 the soil and the deterioration of the cheese, but this coincidence 

 was more or less irregular. It stands to reason that where a 

 soil has been greatly enriched an old-time method of cheese- 

 making, that was suitable to its pristine condition, will not 

 answer now. 



I know well enough, for it is within my recollection, that 

 the old method, which was hardly the same in any two places, 



