BUTTER, MILK, CHEESE 141 



raised the price of new milk from 2d. to 3d. per quart in 1873, and in the 

 following spring the Bowness dealers raised the price to 4d. per quart ; 

 protest meetings were held at the latter place and a committee formed 

 which arranged for a supply of milk to be brought in from the outside 

 districts, retailing it at the old price, 3d. per quart — the dealers soon 

 gave way, and the price remains the same, which is the general 

 price throughout the county for " tippling " new milk though 2jd. 

 per quart obtains in many of the smaller places. 



Many fanners, those more especially in the Eden Valley, within 

 a mile or two of a railway station send their milk each day to New- 

 castle or Shields, but as the milk has first to be cooled it can only be 

 done on those farms where there is a sufficiency of water. For this 

 business the year is divided into three periods, the price of milk varying 

 in each, but on the average the year through the farmer makes 8d. 

 per gallon gross, out of which he has to pay id. per gallon railway 

 charges up to 100 miles and has to suffer any loss there may be in 

 transit. The payments are made monthly. 



In 1894 several farmers in the Kirkby Stephen district were 

 sending milk to Liverpool and London at a profitable rate — the move- 

 ment was led by Thompson of Hartley Castle. 



It cannot be said that the manufacture of cheese has ever taken 

 a prominent place in Westmorland agriculture — what little is made 

 is mostly blue milk, and it is consumed on the farms. The only market 

 for cheese is at Appleby where, at the Lammas Fair in 1882, there were 

 between 30 and 40 stands, and the prices were for new milk cheese 

 8d. per lb. and for skim milk cheese 5d. to 6d. ; the supply still 

 continues to dwindle, and at the same fair in igog only one wholesale 

 dealer attended, the prices then were yd. to 8d. per lb. for nevr milk 

 cheese. 



