CHEESE MAKING 311 



were crossed with a Down ram in order to produce 

 early lambs, while the second flock of Hampshires 

 was kept to eat off the turnips in the winter. About 

 twenty cows were in profit, a little butter but mainly 

 cheese being made from the milk. Caerphilly was 

 the standard cheese, though when milk was plentiful 

 and the markets over-stocked with Caerphilly the 

 manufacture of Wensleydale cheese took its place. 

 The Wensleydales have to be ripened for some months, 

 but then command a much higher price than the 

 Caerphilly, though of course the market is a restricted 

 one. The introduction of this Wensleydale cheese 

 has been wholly due to the County Travelling Dairy 

 School. Stock-rearing, however, was of more im- 

 portance than milk on this farm, the steers being 

 fattened and the heifers sold after one or two calves 

 as young cows in full milk. The proximity of the 

 colliery districts resulted in excellent markets for cows 

 in profit, as well as for fat cattle and produce 

 of all kinds. In consequence dairying has been 

 extending in the district, the sale of milk being very 

 profitable wherever the farm is near enough to a 

 station. 



It was chiefly the returns to be obtained for milk 

 that caused a considerable demand for small holdings 

 in the county, but the resulting transfer of land had 

 not always been to the good of farming or the 

 increase of the food supply. Our host had been 

 forced to give up some 25 acres of his best grassland 

 to a small holder who, instead of attempting to live 

 upon it, simply cut and sold the hay and then let the 

 grazing of the aftermath, a procedure which is un- 

 doubtedly remunerative for a time but ruinous to the 

 land, and as such had been forbidden by his covenants 

 to the original occupier. Still, Monmouthshire does 



