2()6 On Cheese-makiny in Home Dairies and in Factories. 
40s. per cow to the farmer, when it is consumed at home along 
with meal and other purchased food. And it may be named, as 
in some measure justifying this estimate of the value of the whey, 
that at the Rooksbridge cheese-factory, near Weston, where a 
large piggery is part of the establishment, those who send their 
milk receive, as payment for it, their aliquot share of the whole 
annual selling value of the cheese made from it, without any 
deductions for expense — being willing to give up the whey for the 
dairy expenses which they thus escape. These, in large dairies, 
amount to 11. per cow, and in small ones, perhaps, to nearly 
double that amount per annum. This difficulty connected with 
the whey must, I think, in fairness be considered as a real draw- 
back to the otherwise unquestionable merit of the factory system. 
But it will not be considered fatal to it ; the whey will either be 
brought back to the farm which supplied the milk, and then it 
is only the additional cost of carriage which has to be considered ; 
or it will be sold at the factory to the nearer farms ; or it will be 
used in pigsties near the factory. In the first case, at some of 
the factories the managers permit the use of the same vessels for 
the whey as have brought the milk — which of course involves 
the need of special care in cleaning them between times. In 
both the other cases, the value of the whey returns, more or less 
peifectly, to the farmer, who will then, in respect of the alleged 
loss of the fertility due to the consumption of the whey, be only 
standing in a similar position to that of many other occupiers of 
land, in respect^of their grain and other produce which they might 
consume at home, to the great increase of the fertility of their 
land, but which they prefer to sell ; taking care of the productive- 
ness of their farms, as they are quite able to do, in other ways. 
(3.) An objection, almost certain to be fatal, if not to the 
adoption of the factory system in a district, at least to any patron- 
age of it by individual occupiers, will, no doubt, be made on 
particular farms by those who are already in the habit of making 
the very best quality of cheese in the market. They will not be 
satisfied with only the high average price which they may 
expect by sending their milk to a factory. But this objection 
can exist only in the exceptional cases of those who have reason 
to be proud of the name and fame of their several dairies. On 
the majority of farms the cheese made is below the average 
quality ; and by sending all the milk of a district to a factory 
there is the advantage gained of putting the cheese-making ol 
the whole country-side in the cleverest hands that can be hired. 
(4). 1 must add to these objections that the carriage of th( 
milk is a c:lear addition, which the factory system involves, t( 
the ordinary labour of the farm, already generally heavy enougli 
and of course, if the balance of advantages between the hom( 
