FIFTH SHOW AT GLASGOW, 1850. 31I 



The receipts for admission and for catalogues amounted 

 to £igog 153. 3d. 



At the dinner following the show, the Duke of Rox- 

 burghe presided, and the Duke of Argyll was croupier. 



cheese publicly on seven or eight farms, from the north of that county to the 

 confines of Wigtownshire. Those exhibitions were numerously attended by 

 farmers and their wives, and the way was cleared for the desired alteration of 

 practice. A number of Ayrshire fanners made the change at once, with 

 obvious improvement in most cases. In Galloway, some of the daiiymen and 

 farmers went with their wives to Mr Harding's dairy to qualify themselves for 

 carrj'ing out the new mode of manufacture ; and the improvement was greater 

 on the whole in Wigtownshire and Kirkcudbright than in Ayrshire. In other 

 daily counties the Cheddar mode was adopted at the same time, and it soon 

 became the prevalent mode in Scotland. 



The Ayrshire Association has continued to foster the movement, and in 

 doing so they have had the countenance of, and also material aid from, the 

 Highland Society. The first public exhibition of .Scotch Cheddar cheese was 

 made at Ayr in 1855, and next year the annual competitions were begim at 

 Kilmarnock. These competitions have taken place at the end of October, and 

 they are continued with a degree of success which seems steadily to increase. 

 They are the most extensive annual shows of the kind in the kingdom, or 

 indeed in the world. 



The great value of the movement is recognised by all who are acquainted 

 with the recent history of cheese-making. The cheese \\hich is made in a few 

 of the Somerset dairies probably still excels the finest Scotch Cheddar, but the 

 Scotch makers are now far ahead as regards general quality. And they are 

 following out improvements with characteristic ingenuity and perseverance. 

 It is said by men who are capable of forming an opinion, that the change of 

 mode has added at the rate of two pounds per cow to the annual value of the 

 cheese dairies of Scotland ; and the estimate may be applied to about 70,000 

 cows in the western and south-western counties. 



The extension of the Cheddar mode of cheese-making has, however, not 

 been confined to this country. The proceedings of the Ayrshire Association 

 brought it under the notice of daiiy owners on the European Continent and in 

 America. In Canada and the United States, improvements have been aided 

 by the establishment of cheese factories. At a single factory the milk of 

 hundreds of cows is made into cheese by a person carefully trained for the 

 work, and good buildings and appliances can be obtained at a moderate outlay 

 in comparison with the amount of produce. The number of factories already 

 at work is veiy great, and there is almost unlimited space for extension in 

 America. The quality of American cheese is improving, and the quantity sent 

 to this country is increasing year by year. But the most serious competition 

 with British produce in our own markets has occurred since the middle of 1878. 

 At a time of dull trade and lowered wages, the market has been weighed 

 down by enormous importations, and prices have fallen fully 25s. per cwt. 

 That decline is equal to the entire rent paid for many good daiiy fanns in 

 Wigtownshire. 



