Report on the Dairy-Farming of the North-west of France. 309 
the retailer.* Small tins for exportation to the tropics add 
something considerable to the price of the butter, namely, in 
round numbers, 2^c?. for 1-lb. tins, for 2 lbs., and bd. for 
tins holding 4 lbs. Thus the cost per lb. decreases very rapidly 
in proportion to the augmentation in the size of the tin. 
Cheese-Making. 
Cheese is not r^arded exactly in the same light in France as 
in England. With us it is much more of a food, with our 
neighbours across the Channel it is much more of a flavour. 
The working classes in both countries use cheese as food ; but 
in France the skim-cheese is, as a rule, softer in texture and 
more pungent in flavour than it is in England. The kinds of 
cheese made, even in the north-western departments of France, 
are almost too numerous to mention ; and they present every 
possible gradation from the " Suisse double creme," with its 
extraordinary richness and extreme delicacy, to a farmhouse 
skim-cheese, made for the resident labourers, that would blister 
an unaccustomed palate. It will be sufficient for me to sketch 
briefly the processes of manufacture, relating to a few different 
types of cheese made from cows' milk, in the district of France 
which I have already defined. These are (1) the "Bondon," or 
*' Neufchatel," with its more luscious outcome called " Suisse," 
and " Suisse double creme," (2} the " Camembert," which stands 
in the first rank of French soft whole-milk cheeses, (3) the Livarot, 
a soft skim-cheese ; and (4) the well known Gruyere, as an 
example of a hard cheese having a distinct individuality. 
To show how far this is from exhausting the list, I reprint 
the following abstract of a classification of French cheeses, from 
Professor Pouriau's valuable work entitled, " La Laiterie," 
(p. 231) :- 
Creme, Double Crfeme (called suisses), Neuf- 
Fresh Cheese I chatel, Bondons, Malakolfs, Coulommiers, 
Gournay, Mont d'Or, &c. 
Marolles, RoUot, Macquelines, Compiegne, 
Neufchatel, Camembert, Livarot, Pont 
I'Eveque, Mlgnot, Brie, Coulommiers, 
Troves, Mont d'Or, Saint Florentin, Se- 
uecterre, and many others. 
Dutch (made in France), Bergue, Cantal, 
or Auvergne, Septmoncel, Gex, Mont Cenis, 
Hard Cheeses < cooked .. Gerome (dry), Sassanage, Roquefort. 
Pressed, salted, ( French Gruyere, Port du Salut, Rangi- 
\ and cooked .. \ port. 
Soft Cheeses 
Cared Cheese 
Pressed and salt- 
ed, but not 
cooked 
* On this point I may be allowed to quote the remark of an English friend : — 
" My cheesemonger said to me the other day, ' Look here at this French box — I 
open it (which lie did), — liere is the butter fit to weigh out to you without an 
atom of loss. Now let us break open this cask of Irish : you see I have to scnipe 
it all round and lose a lot, besides the trouble.' " 
