94 BRITISH DAIRYING. 



not, for I have tasted fine factory cheeses, on various occasions, 

 that were more than a year old. The merit of early ripening is 

 worth a good deal in cheese. 



English Cheeses. 



There are many different kinds of cheeses in England, each 

 of which is supposed to have its own method of manufacture. 

 In Continental countries there is a still greater variety, but we 

 have not yet seen much need to copy the methods employed 

 in those countries. Of the British kinds of cheese, the Cheddar, 

 the Cheshire, and the Stilton are the most famous, and of these 

 three the Cheshire has the most ancient reputation. Cheddar 

 cheese is like the British people, in so far as it is cosmopolitan 

 alike in its presence and its adaptability. No other kind of 

 cheese is made in so many different countries and to such an 

 extent. A century ago it was hardly known away from its 

 natal home in the Mendip Hills of Somersetshire, but the old- 

 world abbots of Glastonbury are supposed to have appreciated 

 its merits. It is now made in many counties of Great Britain, 

 in the thousands of cheese-factories of America and Canada, in 

 Australia and New Zealand, and even in Russia, Germany, and 

 various other Continental countries. 



The method on which it is made has been brought to a 

 science by practice, study, and experiment, and is no longer 

 empirical at all, in the sense that most other methods are. 

 There is reason to conclude that it lends itself better than any 

 other to a great range of soils, climates, and countries, though 

 some few persons imagine that only in Somerset can the finest 

 qualities of Cheddar cheese be made. This opinion, narrow 

 enough for fifty years ago, has been disproved over and over 

 again. Judges of undisputed ability consider that the best 

 Scotch Cheddars are equal to the best of Somerset, and the 

 London Dairy Shows have corroborated this belief. Again, 

 Canadian Cheddars are not easily beaten by those of Ayrshire 

 or Somerset, and some of the American samples are also good. 

 The method, indeed, has adapted itself to almost every country 



