346 CHEESE-MAKING IN NORTH HOLLAND. 



but the longer the cow remains in the stall the more 

 the milk loses its good quality for cheese, on which 

 account but few of the larger dairies make cheese at all 

 in winter. 



To make it appear to buyers more like grass-made 

 cheese, and to be able to sell it, it is colored with the 

 same material, and it is then often very difficult to dis- 

 tinguish it, since great pains is taken to give the two 

 kinds the same form, hardness of rind, etc. The dairy- 

 men have less to do with this deception than the deal- 

 ers. Hay cheese is rather better in quality for coloring, 

 since it gains in appearance and taste ; but it never can 

 equal grass-made cheese in fine qualities. 



CHEESE-MAKING IN NORTH HOLLAND. In the province 

 of North Holland sweet milk cheese is made almost 

 exclusively. From ancient times this particular branch 

 of farming has been carried to great extent 5 but it has 

 especially grown in importance since the province 

 gained a firm soil by artificial draining. At the present 

 time North Holland is the head-quarters of the cheese- 

 trade ; and it is easily explained in the fact that no 

 other province has more or better cattle. The manu- 

 facture of cheese is almost the only object of keeping 

 cattle, and the North Dutch dairy farmer applies him- 

 self with the greatest possible zeal to the most careful 

 modes of cheese-making, in order to keep up the ancient 

 reputation of his cheeses, both in the domestic and 

 foreign markets, and to secure to himself all of the 

 advantages springing from it. 



The quantity of cheese which is weekly sold in the 

 markets of Alkmaar, Hoorn, Edam, Purmerend, Meden- 

 blik, Enkhuizen, etc., is enormous. We cite Alkmaar 

 alone as an example, where on the city scales there were 

 weighed no less than 23,859,258 Netherlandish pounds 

 (536,834,830 pounds, American), from 1758 to 1830. 



