British Dairy Farming. 
151 
district, where the dairies are much dirtier than in the Camem- 
bert, I have never seen the white fungus in such great perfection 
as in some of the dairies near Lisieux and St. Pierre-sur-Dives. 
At the end of ten days this fungus is of considerable size and 
great perfection, thousands of cheeses in the same apartment 
being covered as evenly as possible, and yet there were no signs 
of any special reason why it should appear with these makers 
any more than with us. The fact is, however, that, although 
the operation of manufacture may be carried on in identically the 
same manner and in similarly constructed apartments, a maker 
in this country would find his cheeses entirely destitute of their 
requisite covering, unless by chance the fungus happened to be 
present in the apartment in which the cheese was made. The 
white fungus is both beautiful to look upon and to examine with 
the microscope. Having arrived at perfection, it gradually be- 
comes covered with a blue fungus, and subsequently with a 
reddish-yellow. The three fungi, one above the other, in their 
different stages of existence or decay, give the cheese a somewhat 
dirty appearance, which is not improved by complete refinement. 
Doubts have been cast upon the fact that Camembert will keep. 
Here, again, the mind of the dairy-farming public should be 
set at rest. Cheeses made in September and October are sent 
out in February and March for spring consumption, and, as a 
matter of fact, although the Camembert is only made at two 
short seasons of the year, it can b'? obtained the whole year 
through. A collection of cheese brought from Calvados by my- 
self in September of last year, and which were fully ripe at the 
London Dairy Show, were perfectly preserved in January, and 
quite as good as ever, although possibly somewhat firmer. 
The destruction of a properly-made soft cheese is only effected 
during the two hottest months of the year, and this only if they 
are subjected to the attacks of flies. With regard to the profit- 
able nature of Camembert, it may be observed that, as it requires 
two litres of milk to make one cheese, a cow giving 600 gallons, 
or 2700 litres, would make 1350 cheeses, which, at 6(/., would 
be equivalent to 33/. 15s. This statement, however, requires 
qualification, inasmuch as it is not possible to make the cheese 
in perfection throughout the year without considerable and 
unremunerative trouble, nor do all the best Camembert cheeses 
realize 6rf. The best wholesale price received by the makers 
for the English market appears to be 'o\d. each, but cheeses 
intended for us are made somewhat larger than those for the 
French market, which realize from hd. to ^\d. each. M. Roussel 
makes 1800 Camemberts daily, using 800 gallons of milk, or 
the daily average production of 400 cows. If this gentleman con- 
tinues to make for no more than five months in the year, the quan- 
