50 [Assembly 



dows; whose surface is not divided between the adjacent owners 

 by fences, but the animal is kept on the domains of its owner by 

 a cowherd, who constantly attends them. Green grass is always 

 kept in the manger during the season, and meal and root crops 

 are mingled with the hay when the animal is stabled. The cows 

 are kept in warm and comfortable stables, where much attention 

 is paid to their cleanliness, and much economy is used in saving 

 the liquid manure, which in the German cantons is called mist 

 wasser; this is not very judiciously applied to meadow and pas- 

 ture grounds. It is only in the Alpine solitudes where the cow 

 roves over varied pastures, and feeds on rich and aromatic herbage 

 from May to September. Even here each proprietor has his lit- 

 tle Alps, mountain pasture over which his herd is allowed to 

 graze. This enchanting ground is where the cowherd blows his 

 horn, and the ruddy and sunburnt milk-maid sings her Ranz des 

 Vaches, but the Oreodes, or mountain nymphs, are only in the 

 imaginati(m of tlie poet. The chalets, or cowherds' quarters, in 

 which cleanliness or comfort can seldom be found, are strongly 

 constructed, in order to resist the Ton, the hurricane which sweeps 

 along the flanks of the Alps, and the heavy bodies of snow which 

 entomb them in winter. It is all sheer poetry about neat cottages 

 dotting the Swiss mountains, or that all the inmates lead a happy 

 and contented life : they are almost as rude as our Indian wig- 

 wams, the inmates are lilthy, and live on" coarse and scanty food, 

 principally made of a little black bread and hard skimmed-milk 

 cheese that requires an ax to cleave. 



Cheese has been from time immemorial, the staple commodity 

 of the valley of the Great and Little Emme, and the Grucyere 

 on the Saone. These samples of Swiss dairy-industry do not fall 

 short of the high standard of excellence awarded to them in the 

 home and foreign markets. There are cheese-vaults at Summis- 

 wald, that hold the article that has been deposited a century. 

 Those that manufacture cheese in the Emmenthal -have attained 

 great perfection in producing a rir-h, highly flavored and portable 

 commodity, that is sent to the ends of the e;u-th. The best 

 Grucyere is as rich as the Stilton of England, or the Brie of 

 France, and is so much esteemed by the independent makers as 



