310 Report on the Dairy-Farming of the North-west of France. 
Bondon. — The head-quarters of this class of cheese may be 
regarded as the district of Bray in the Seine-Inferieure, having 
the little town of Neufchatel as its capital. In fact it is known 
in England better as "Neufchatel" than as "Bondon," and 
many people are under the impression that the little cylindrical 
cheeses are imported from the town of Neufchatel in Switzerland. 
This delusion has been fostered by the fact that the variety of 
the cheese which has a certain proportion of cream added to the 
curd, is called in Paris " Suisse double creme ; " but the epithet 
no more indicates the nationality of the cheese than it does that 
of the Parish Beadle, who is also known as " le Suisse." 
The process of manufacture, as I saw it near Monterolier 
under the guidance of M. Rasset, fils, the mayor of that com- 
mune, is as follows : The rennet is added to the milk, in pots 
holding about three gallons, at its natural temperature as it comes 
from the cow. Various devices are resorted to in the winter to 
preserve this temperature, without actually warming the milk. 
The pots may be warmed by immersion in scalding water ; a 
number may be placed in a case, and the inter-spaces filled up 
with straw and chaff, well packed in ; or they may be wrapped 
up in the linen cloths which are afterwards used to receive the 
curd. The rennet being added to the milk, it is left for many 
hours, even as many as forty-eight, for the curd to be fully de- 
posited ; the curd is afterwards placed in a linen cloth, which 
is suspended from the four corners of a skeleton box, and is 
there left for several hours, to enable the whey to drain off. It 
is then transferred to a clean cloth, in which it is carefully 
folded up, and is submitted to pressure for about twelve hours, 
or at least until the whey ceases to run out ; but the pressure is 
neither very great nor very even. The curd is next passed 
through cylindrical moulds, and the small cylindrical cheeses 
thus formed are at once salted on the outside. The cheeses, 
being then made, are put into a cellar on boards, each one being 
quite separate from its neighbours. In a few days, more or less 
according to the temperature, the first mould, thick and white, 
makes its appearance, and soon afterwards, especially in sum- 
mer, the cheeses are sold fresh. At other times the process of 
" curing" is continued longer, and the cheeses are sold later at 
higher prices. On the whole, a fairly good maker will realize 
an average of 10 centimes (1^/.) each, and as it is reckoned that 
the milk of an average Norman cow (say 400 gallons) in a 
comparatively poor district like that of Monterolier will make 
4000 cheeses, this gives an average return of IG/. per cow per 
annum, without reckoning the value of the whey and the calf. 
The much richer quality of cheese for immediate consump- 
tion, already referied to as "Suisse" and " Suisse double creme," 
