320 Report on the Dairy-Farming of the North-west of France. 
but, as I have already described in detail, by a merchant who 
completes the process of Butter-making. What has been so 
successful in France ought surely to succeed in England, and 
more particularly in Ireland. It seems to me that here is an 
opening for men of enterprise and capital, and with proper 
management their success ought not to be doubtful. If, how- 
ever, the farmers of a district wish to retain for themselves the 
profits of this new middle-man, let them combine and furnish 
their own factory, appoint a paid manager, and sell a uniform 
quality of butter under their own brand. 
With regard to cheese, my conviction is that it will not pay 
any but the very best English cheese-makers to produce hard 
cheese many years longer. The American competition is be- 
coming more and more keen, the markets are becoming more 
and more glutted, not only with cheese, but with tinned meats 
and other kinds of cheap food which tend to lessen the con- 
sumption of cheese, and therefore the price of cheese will neces- 
sarily be kept low. All the while, the price of really good 
fresh butter is high, because there is so little of it, most of 
the foreign butter being more or less salted. Therefore it seems 
well worth a vigorous effort on the part of the English farmer 
to come once more to the front with a good quality of the 
less transportable article. 
I have devoted some pages to a description of three kinds of 
soft French cheese, two being articles of luxury, while the third 
(a skim-cheese) is very much superior to anything made from 
skim-milk in this country. The processes of manufacture which 
I have described entail no hard manual labour, and are therefore 
infinitely better adapted to a woman's organization than the 
slavery of making a huge Cheddar. Again, the process of 
curing in its various stages is of a nature to interest the dairy- 
woman in its ultimate success. The making of such cheeses on 
farms which are too far from a railway or large town for the 
milk to be sold unmanufactured would be very remunerative at 
those seasons when the markets are glutted with butter of all 
nationalities ; but such a practice would necessitate \igilant 
supervision on the part of the farmer's wife. 
The usual answer to such a suggestion as that Neufchatel, 
Camcmbert, and Livarot cheeses should be made in England 
will doubtless be given, namely, " Our climate and soil are not 
adapted to that class of cheese." But if Scotchmen, Americans, 
Canadians, Swedes, Russians, &c., can make Cheddar cheese, 
if Frenchmen and Russians can make the Edam cheese of 
flolland and the Gruyerc of Switzerland, why should not 
English dairy-farmers make soft French cheeses? Mr. Allender, 
Managing Director of the Aylesbury Dairy Company, has kindly 
