British Dairy Farming. 
153 
curd in the past autuain, which enabled me for the first time to 
produce the true Camembert, for the blue fungus has never been 
so difficult to obtain. 
Brie. 
Although much less known in England than the Camembert, 
the Brie is the most popular cheese in France, and it is question- 
able whether even an English gourmand, comparing the two 
varieties, would not give it the preference. The jKite is more 
unctuous, and the delicacy of flavour still more pronounced than 
in the Camembert. There is some resemblance between the 
Brie and the Slipcote cheese of Nottinghamshire and Lincoln- 
shire ; but whereas the one is imperfect and perishable, the other 
is perfection itself and will keep for a considerable time. The 
extent to which the French cheeses are now selling in England 
is a sufficient proof that our people appreciate them the more that 
they become acquainted with them, and I have no doubt what- 
ever that, little by little, the Brie, if made here in perfection, 
would extend and become an important article of dairy produce. 
How important it is in France few people are aware. By reason 
of the great demand for the best quality and the price that it re- 
turns for the milk, it has much to do with the general prosperity 
of the French dairy farmer. Generally speaking, while a pound 
of English cheese is made from a gallon of Jersey milk, a pound 
of French soft cheese requires only half a gallon, and yet the soft 
cheese returns almost as much, and frequently more money per 
pound. In five arrondissements in the Brie district alone, six 
million Brie cheeses are annually made. Estimating these at 
an average of four pounds weight each, they represent the yield 
of 25,500 cows, supposing the return per cow to be 450 gallons. 
To estimate this important fact at its full value, it should be 
understood that there are 19 English counties in which, accord- 
ing to the Agricultural Returns, cows and heifers, in-milk and in- 
calf, do not reach this number. The probability is therefore 
that there are very few counties in this country in which so 
many cows actually in-milk are kept, and if the Brie system 
were flourishing among us to the extent that it flourishes in 
France, it would practically prove the staple industry of the 
farmers of an entire and leading county. Although the Brie is a 
high-class cheese, it can be made of either new or skim-milk, 
or of a mixture of both ; but cheeses of the higher class, while 
being made of new milk of rich quality, must be made of the 
milk from one milking — the mixing of the morning and evening 
milk being detrimental. The object of the maker is twofold. 
Firstly, to obtain a pate which, when fully ripe, or affin4, re- 
