CHESHIRE CHEESE 213 



Cheshire cheese should have a fat and crumby structure 

 long before it has reached the green and full-flavoured 

 stage that is esteemed by the specialists. Cheshire 

 cheese is mostly consumed in the big Lancashire 

 towns and in the Potteries ; the best makes as, for 

 example, the cheeses that form part of the rent on some 

 of the big Cheshire estates are in great demand to 

 stand on the table for lunch in the leading hotels of 

 Manchester and Liverpool. Little Cheshire cheese 

 comes to London, and that is mostly coloured, though 

 the old-fashioned make is more properly white. The 

 yearly output of the farm we were visiting was 1 5 

 tons or somewhat more in a favourable season, and 

 as our hostess was accustomed to win prizes at the big 

 shows her average price would be about 6os. per cwt. 

 About a gallon of milk is required for a pound of 

 cheese, so that the scale of production necessitated 

 about 600 gallons a year from each cow on the farm, 

 and the price made was about equal to what would 

 have been obtained for fresh milk, while the whey 

 remained on the farm for pigs. Pigs fed on the whey 

 and purchased meal formed the second chief source of 

 income, and the extensive sties were all ranged under 

 a big covered shed. Though the shed provided plenty 

 of ventilation it was on the whole a mistake ; for pigs 

 must have sunshine, and probably because of the lack 

 of it the herd, as we learnt, was not so healthy as it 

 might have been in much inferior buildings. 



The soil of the farm was a fairly strong loam, and 

 carried a fine sward, which if short was still keeping 

 delightfully green in the hot season. As in Cheshire, 

 bone manures were highly esteemed for the grass in 

 preference to superphosphate or basic slag ; all the 

 pastures had been dressed more than once, and the 

 occupier had no doubts about the benefit that had 



