314 Report on the Dairy-Farming of the North-west of France. 
remain for three or four weeks, being turned every day or every 
two days, according to the season, and carefully examined 
periodically. When ready for market — that is to say, in winter 
when they are ripe, and in summer when they are about half- 
ripe — they are made up into packets of six, by means of straw 
and paper, with a skill and tidiness worthy of the reputation 
of the cheese. 
The prices of Camembert cheese vary very much according to 
quality and season. A really good cheese should have a mottled 
external appearance, the colours being a reddish brown and a dirty 
yellow, the former predominating. If the colour is too bright it 
betokens a skim-cheese ; as also does an elasticity or toughness 
when the cheese is pressed on the face with the finger. The quan- 
tity of milk required to make a Camembert cheese varies a little, 
according to its richness in cream when used for cheese-making. 
Thus the Marquis de Cussey de Jucoville, who has a dairy of 30 
cows, near Isigny, makes 8 cheeses from 24i pints of milk, or 
about 3 pints of milk to a cheese ; but he takes off no cream. 
He sells them at from 7^ to 8 francs (6a\ to 6s. 5f/.) the dozen ; 
and assuming that his cows (which are remarkably good ones, 
and graze on some of the best pastures in Normandy, having a 
rent value there of nearly 5/. per acre) give an average of 550 
gallons, their gross return in cheese alone would be 36/. per 
head per annum, if it were all made into Camembert. Indeed, 
the Marquis himself told me that the average gross return of his 
cows exceeded 40Z. per head per annum. 
Mons. Paynel, of Mesnil Mauger, near Lisieux, received a 
large gold medal from the Im~perial Jury in the district compe- 
tition of 1867. His farming then was similar to what it is now, 
but was not on so large a scale ; and his books showed that in 
1865 his 57 cows had given over 320,000 gallons of milk (an 
average of more than 550 gallons per head). With this milk he 
had made 2700 lbs. of butter, 3125 Livarot cheeses, and 59,146 
Camembert cheeses (using 3^ pints of milk to each). Putting 
these products at the prices which a French farmer may obtain 
for them now-a-days, supposing them to be of the best quality, 
they make a total of over 32/. per cow, without reckoning the 
value of butter-milk, whey, or calf. Considering that the rent 
of his land is about 56s. per acre, his net return would probably 
not fall far short of that of the INIarquis de Cussey de Jucoville. 
Livarot Cheese. — This is a skim-cheese about twice the weight 
of a Camembert. It takes its name from a town in the Pays 
d'Auge, about nine miles from Lisieux— the head-quarters of the 
manufacture of Camembert cheese at the present time. It is 
estimated that the quantity of Livarot cheese made annually has 
a value of about 80,000/. — more or less according to the season, 
