CHAP. vir. RIPENING OF CHEESE. 345 



is found in the grass-field. If we sow on a good old pasture coarse 

 rank-growing grasses they soon crowd out the finer and less vigorous 

 grasses and overrun the field. Even if we do not sow rank grasses, 

 but merely manure an old/ mixed pasture with heavy dressings of 

 rich manure, like nitrate /of soda, we know that the coarser and 

 stronger grasses will be so encouraged as to gradually crowd out the 

 clovers and finer grasses. So, doubtless, it is with cheese readin<* 

 organisms for grasses, and whey and its constituents for manure. 



" When cheeses of intermediate ripening speed are made, it is by 

 observing (or neglecting) such precautions as have been mentioned in 

 an intermediate degree. 



" The hastening of cheese-ripening within moderate limits doubt- 

 less a desirable thing in the eyes of many farmers was arrived at 

 gradually, but of course empirically, and as the result more or less of 

 accident followed by shrewd observation. Had the nature of cheese- 

 ripening, however, been earlier understood, the manufacture of early 

 ripening cheese might have been devised long before. As it is, the 

 knowledge now possessed, limited though it is, enables the control of 

 cheese-making to be effected far more intelligently than was possible 

 before biology began to throw light upon the many interesting 

 phenomena involved in it." 



CHAPTER VII. 



ON THE PRODUCE OF A DAIRY. 



THE produce of a dairy is to be regarded in a twofold view, as con- 

 cerning quantity and value. Both depend in a great degree upon 

 management ; for if the cow is injudiciously treated, or the butter and 

 cheese are badly made, both the product and the price will be materially 

 diminished. There is no part of farming which should be more steadily 

 profitable than the dairy, but, at the same time, not one which demands 

 greater judgment and attention. 



Of the three objects of the dairy, namely, milk-selling, cheese- and 

 butter-making, and the raising of young stock direct from the udder, 

 the first is generally the most profitable at the usual price obtained 

 for the milk. The milk-trade, however, can only be carried on within 

 easy reach of a town or a railwa}^, and in recent years the trade has 

 been a good deal cut up by numerous competitors, too many farmers 

 having gone into the business. Prices, therefore, have been de- 

 pressed, as a general rule, during the time when cheese and butter 

 have been low in value. Still, it is true that milk- selling pays as well 

 or better than anything else in farming, and the hope is that it will 



