282 FIELD AND FERN. 



with September^ and make fresh butter and skim- 

 milk cheese all the winter. Very little of the latter 

 is sold, except in the crannies of the Highlands, 

 Oban and Tobermory, and perhaps in the dram- 

 shops of Glasgow. Temperature is the very key- 

 stone both of making and keeping. In summer the 

 heat is kept up from 66 to 70 degrees, and at the end 

 of September hot water and stoves come in. In 

 Ayrshire many of the Marquis of Bute^s tenants 

 have capital making places, and cheese -houses heated 

 with pipes ; and in Galloway a few farmers make all 

 winter. It is pretty good, but stiff and of a peculiar 

 flavour, and does not pay for keeping. Cheese of 

 six weeks old will sell in Glasgow, which has, in con- 

 tradistinction to Edinburgh, "stomach for anything.^^ 

 It is in proper condition for using three months after 

 making, and of course it ripens sooner if it has been 

 kept warm by artificial heat. Eleven years ago the 

 Dunlop system was universal, but the progress of 

 Cheddar has been so rapid that in '63 it had quite 

 got the lead, and now half Ayrshire and Dumfries- 

 shire adopt it. A Cheddar cheese is sometimes made 

 as big as 961bs., and it averages 6s. to 10s. per cwt. 

 more than Dunlop. The curds of a Cheddar are plot- 

 ted with warm whey, and it is made up a little dryer, 

 and is a little sooner ripe. It also takes rather 

 longer making, and is steeped colder, and the milk is 

 not so warm when the rennet is put in. Cheddar is 

 more carefully worked out, whereas Dunlop is more 

 hit-or-miss or rule-of-thumb. By the Cheddar mode 



