284 FIELD AND FERN. 



(\yliicli is generally softer)^ and the Scottisli ones are 

 gradually beginning to insist on it. Some of the 

 largest dealers will have at times as much as 15^000 

 stone (of241bs.) in stock, and he under engagements 

 for more, which the farmers send in by turn, al- 

 though they all like if possible to clear their 

 cheese-houses in October. All the lots are paid for 

 in ready money, as the farmers could very ill afford 

 to give credit. Once there was lib. given in every 

 241bs. of cheese, and a fleece to every 12 stone of 

 wool — " a pun to the stane and a fleece to the pack'^ 

 — but the factors are *^kind of beat out of it now,'^ 

 and of tliese hoary customs only the clad score is 

 left, and that in a very mutilated shape. 



A newiy-madc cheese should be turned once a day 

 for six weeks, and then once a week for the rest of 

 the twelve months, in order to prevent the rot of the 

 skin. Messrs. R,ichardson of Edinburgh and a few 

 others adopt the English system of putting elm 

 boards between the rows so as to keep the skins apart. 

 A factor who chooses to keep for a twelvemonth, and 

 observes all these precautions, can sell occasionally 

 as high as 16s. per stone, but that is the highest 

 point Cheddar has ever reached. Cheddar, which is 

 iiner and sweeter in flavour, keeps better than Dun- 

 lop, and the latter generally becomes too strong in 

 flavour after nine months. For very first-rate keep- 

 ing, a fire is preferable to a stove^ as the heat is too 

 severe at times. A stone of cheese kept with the 

 greatest tact will waste ten per cent, in a year. 



