318 Report on the Dairy-Farming of the North-west of France. 
the curd into the centre of the vat, and then allows a few 
moments for the rotatory movement of the whey to subside. He 
then takes a cloth, puts 
Fig. lO.—Curd-hreakerfor Gruyere cheese. corner between his 
teeth, holds the lateral 
corners in each hand, 
holding at the same 
time a curved iron wire 
over which the remain- 
ing corner of the cloth is folded. He then bends over the cheese- 
tub, and by deftly passing the wire completely under the heap 
of curd collects it all in the cloth. The clothful of curd is then 
taken out and placed in a frame of the size and shape of the 
cheese, the ends are carefully folded over the top of the mass of 
curd, a board is put on, and the cheese submitted to pressure for 
24 hours, in the course of which it is turned seven or eight 
times. After pressure it is rubbed with salt and transferred to 
a cellar, where it is turned and rubbed every other day for 
about three months, when it is fit for market. 
It may not be out of place to add that M. Lecomte, making 
as he does over 1000 gallons of milk per day into Gruyere 
cheese, necessarily has a large pig- feeding establishment. Be- 
tween 400 and 500 pigs are fattened annually, a large number 
being bred by himself, and the remainder bought in as required. 
Their food consists of crushed maize, more or less cooked and 
mixed with whey. It is given them three times a day in a 
series of small yards, where each pig knows his own trough. 
They eat as much as they like at the fixed hours, but have 
nothing in the intervals. 
Conclusion. 
Readers of the foregoing pages should now be in a position to 
consider the inferences which may be derived from the facts 
therein given. At the present time the annual value of the 
imports of butter into the United Kingdom is in round numbers 
ten millions sterling, and of this large amount more than one- 
third is paid annually to France. The imports of cheese amount 
to about five millions annually, but of this very little comes 
from the other side of the Channel. The inference from these 
facts seems clear : — Americans, Swedes, Danes, and even Rus- 
sians, have learnt from us how to make Cheddar cheese, and 
have flooded our markets with practically our own wares, which 
they can afford to sell profitably at prices such as have rulpd 
this year (even as low as 2^rZ. per lb.), which mean simple ruin 
to the English cheese-maker. On the other hand, France sends us 
