262 On Cheese-making in Hon e Dairies and in Factories. 
of the success which the movement has at length achieved. 
The two factories, at Longford and Derby, respectively, which 
were originally worked under the guarantee, by their public- 
spirited promoters, of a certain price per gallon for all the milk 
which they received, were soon followed by the establishment of 
four others, on the co-operative principle, in various parts of the 
county ; and Mr. Crompton has now given me a list of 19 in 
five counties already built or about to be erected, which will be 
in operation during the coming year, capable of dealing with the 
milk of 7000 or 8000 cows. The time has therefore come when 
the factory movement may be acknowledged a success, and when 
a report, both of recent experience under it, and of its relations 
to the existing dairy practice of the country, may be useful. 
In order to qualify myself for such a report I have visited all 
those cheese-factories which have been established in Derby- 
shire ;* also one in Gloucestershire, and one in Cheshire, neither 
of which, however, can be considered quite to come within the 
designation which they claim ; and I have seen factories which 
have been for some time in operation near Lichfield, Stafford- 
shire, and near Weston-super-Mare, Somersetshire, respectively. 
Reports and statistics of many of these factories, in some cases 
very complete and full, have been placed at my disposal. 1 
have witnessed a day's operations at some of them, and taken 
notes in the case of all of the process carried out in each. In 
order that the circumstances out of which they have arisen, or 
which they are intended to displace, may be understood and 
fairly represented, I have also visited for the purpose of this 
Report a number of dairy-farms in all the above-named counties 
— dairies of both average and noteworthy merit ; and ample 
opportunity has been given me of discussing the whole subject, 
both with land-owners and with farmers who advocate the 
factory-system, and with land-owners, land-agents, and farmers 
who oppose it. Many excellent dairies in Cheshire, three in 
Derbyshire, nine in Gloucestershire, and three in Somersetshire, 
— one of them belonging rather to the North Wilts district, 
have been thus inspected ; and everything that the expejrience of 
the dairy-farmer can suggest, for either the maintenance or the 
alteration of the old-established form of cheese-dairying, has, 
I believe, been carefully considered. 
It is of course impossible, after all these discussions and in- 
spections, now that the task of reporting them is before me, to 
affec t that entire unprejudice with which it was desirable that 
the inquiry should be commenced. Having learned the history 
• My best thnnks arc duo to Mr. J. G. Crompton, of The Lilies, Derby, and to 
Messrs. G. Murray and J. P. Sheldon, for their guidance and assistance in 
Derliyshire. 
