132 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



broken and indisputable. Nor has time made great changes 

 in the process of making and the character and quality of 

 the cheese itself. Economies in production have been de- 

 veloped, however. Formerly 3,000 or more peasants, or 

 owners of sheep, made the cheese in as many dairies, scat- 

 tered over a wide area. These cheeses were taken to Roque- 

 fort and cared for by the inhabitants of the little village in 

 an unsystematic way, in the mountain caves of various sizes, 

 numbering altogether perhaps 200. Gradually there has 

 come about a union of the cave owners and managers, until 

 the business of Roquefort is practically controlled by two 

 large companies. Only 4 of the largest of the natural caves 

 are now used, these being supplemented by several ponder- 

 ous buildings of stone, several stories in height, and which 

 include immense vaults or artificial caves, tier upon tier, to 

 which the air currents from the mountain caverns are admitted 

 by tunnels, in ways which secure some desirable differences 

 in temperature and moisture in different apartments. At 

 the same time, co-operation has been effected in the early 

 stages of manufacture. Dairies (latteries), or, as we should 

 call them, cheese factories, have been built all through the 

 surrounding country, until there are over 100 of these. To 

 them the peasants carry the milk ever}^ morning, and the 

 factory work is under the supervision of the Roquefort com- 

 panies. In many cases the companies buy the milk at the 

 factories, paying from $1.75 to $2.60 per 100 pounds, or 1(5 

 to 24 cents per gallon, according to the season and conse- 

 quent solid contents of the milk. 



The sheep maintained for this daily industry are a big- 

 bodied, long-legged, white-faced breed, called the Larzac. 

 Heads, legs and bellies are bare, and the animals yield 

 fleece of medium wool averaging about 5 pounds. Their 

 tails are never cut, and the longer they are, the more the 

 animals are esteemed for milk producers. Lambs are 

 dropped in mid-winter, and the ewes are milked until July 

 or August. The active cheese-making season is thus limited 

 to five or six months, and the rest of the year the sheep re- 

 cuperate, while the Roquefort caves and villagers are busy 

 curing, packing and shipping cheese. Good flocks of ewes 



