On Cheese-making in Home Dairies and in Factories. 269 
quality, owing partly, in all probability, to the small quantity 
<)f milk available, and the consequent need of using old curd to 
make up a full-sized cheese. Whether this be the explanation 
or not, I am informed that the cheese made in large quantity 
in the vat of a factory, is good from the very outset of the season, 
and remains of nearly uniform quality throughout the year. 
In addition to the increased value of a make of cheese, owing 
to uniformly high quality, which is realized when the milk is 
taken from the home-dairy and sent to a factory for manufac- 
ture — there is an increased value owing to the larger quantity 
of cheese which undoubtedly is made from a given quantity of 
milk at factories, owing to the more uniform and systematic 
manufacture of the curd, which is possible where large quantities 
are dealt with, as compared with private dairies ; but to this 
some reference will be made hereafter. 
(2.) The diminished cost of cheese-making at which this 
higher value is obtained is another considerable advantage of 
the factory system. This will be related in more detail when 
referring directly to factory management and experience. At 
present I may say that at the Windley Hall Factory, to which 
seventeen dairies contribute their milk, upwards of 50 tons of 
cheese (58 tons 17 cwt. 3 qrs. 3 lbs. of green cheese) were made 
last year by a manager (whose salary is 75/.), his assistant 
(29/. 14s.), and extra assistant (IIZ. 13s.). The materials used 
cost 33Z. lis. ^d., petty expenses 11. 9s. bd., account-keeping 
10/., rent 40/. The mere labour thus amounted to 2s. per cwt., 
and the total cost of manufacture to 3s. lOJrf. per cwt. If we 
compare with this the case of a farm of 30 cows making even 
4 cwts. a-piece, putting the cost and keep of a dairymaid at only 
40/. a year, and charging only three-quarters of it, or 30/., against 
112^ cwts. of cheese, we find a cost of 5s. a cwt. in labour alone, 
even on this moderate valuation of the labour, whether under- 
taken by the mistress or a servant. No wonder that Mr. Joseph 
Needham, of School Clough Farm, a contributor to the Holms 
Factory, near Ashbourne, declares that in the increased value 
and diminished cost of his cheese made from 30 cows he has 
gained 80/. a year by sending it to the factory. 
! (3.) It cannot be alleged that I have over-estimated the cost of 
the work in an ordinary dairy at 30/. a year for 30 cows ; but 
if it be objected that this will in general be undertaken by the 
farmer's wife, whose services hardly admit of a money valuation, 
then, except from those who pronounce hard work to be in itself 
desirable, it may be claimed as one benefit of the factory system 
that it puts a stop to the undue labour — drudgery it must often 
be in times of weakness or imperfect health — of the mistress of 
an ordinary home cheese-dairy. This would not, however, be 
