280 FIELD AND FERN. 



the milk of one day) began near Dunlop, eight miles 

 from Kilmarnock ; and Kilbirnie, Beith, Lochwin- 

 noch, and Stewarton were also its strongholds. Still, 

 there was no general mode followed, and most of it 

 would not have been saleable in England. From 

 time to time the Highland Society offered prizes for 

 the best imitations of Cheshire and Gloucester ; 

 but it was not, we believe, until Mr. Eobert Mac- 

 adam, and his brothers James and Alexander, turned 

 tlicir attention to the improvement of Dunlop cheese 

 in Wigtownshire that there was any marked advance. 

 Mr. Caird, who was then at Baldoon, took up the 

 thing with his wonted spirit, and sent his dairy- 

 man to England to learn ; and afterwards Mr. 

 Robert McAdam came to Baldoon as bower, and 

 introduced the Cheshire mode. Mr. Caird had at 

 this time a hundred cows, and his account of his 

 success induced the directors of the Ayrshire Asso- 

 ciation to send two special commissioners to the 

 English cheese districts. They reported in favour of 

 the Cheddar syst^em, on account of the lightness of 

 labour, ease and simplicity of management, and high 

 price of produce, and the result was that beginnings 

 were at once made in 1854 on several Ayrshire farms, 

 and at last Stewarton has adopted it. 



The Association did not leave the farmers to grope 

 among mere printed rules, but engaged Mr. and Mrs. 

 Joseph Harding from Somersetshire as public in- 

 structors. They set up their apparatus in barns at 

 five or six places in turn, and bowers and dairymaids 



