No. 4.] DAIRYING IN FRANCE. 133 



yield an average of 1 quart of milk a day per head during 

 the season. The cheese product is estimated at 25 to 30 

 pounds per year to the ewe. The sheep contributing to 

 this Roquefort industry are mainly owned within 50 miles 

 although some of them are double that distance. Alto- 

 gether, there are at least 500,000 ewes milked every year in 

 this legion for the purpose of making eheese. 



The Roquefort eheese is quite common in American mar- 

 kets. The details of its manufacture need not be given 

 here. It is usually about 8 inches in diameter and 3| or 4 

 inches thick, and weighs 4 pounds or a little more. At the 

 cave a good cheese is worth at least $1. It generally comes 

 to this country closely wrapped in tin foil. The total annual 

 production of Roquefort proper approximates 12,000,000 

 pounds, and when I visited the caves, in the month of 

 August, they contained nearly 3,000,000 of these rich, 

 highly prized and high-priced cheeses, in various stages of 

 curing, finish and preparation for market. 



The labor of hauling all this cheese from the distant fac- 

 tones, over and through mountains and valleys, up to the 

 town and the caves, and down again to the railway station, 

 is a heavy tax upon the industry, but seems to be regarded 

 as a matter of course. The work is performed with very 

 long-bodied, two-wheeled vehicles and heavy nondescript 

 horses, hitched tandem or tridem. The loads are sometimes 

 very large, and curiously balanced by several hundred weight 

 of stone, hung in chains to different parts of the cart. 



From Roquefort in Avevron, the next move to be made, 

 and the last to study French dairying, will be north-easterly 

 to the Jura Mountain region. In the territory to the east 

 of the old province of Burgogne (Burgundy) were formerly 

 the district or sub-province called the Franche-Comte and 

 the duchy of Savoy. Here are now to be found the depart- 

 ments of Doubs, Jura, L'Ain, Savoy and Upper Savoy. 

 These are all east and a little north from the city of Lyons, 

 and not far west from the Swiss cities of Geneva and Neu- 

 chatel. This region is the seat of activity in the manufac- 

 ture of Gruyere cheese, and is full of interest not only as to 

 present conditions but as regards the history of associated 



