270 On Cheese-making in Home Dairies and in Factories. 
allowed by any of those to whom I spoke upon the subject during 
the round which Mr. Tollemaclie was kind enough to take me 
amongst the farm-houses on his Cheshire estate ; but probably 
the truth is fairly told in a letter upon the subject which I 
received some years ago, soon after a speech by Lord Vernon in 
which this particular service of the factory system was insisted 
on — that it would put an end to the drudgery of the farmer's 
wife. Mrs. Charles Bennett, of Stone, Gloucestershire, one of 
the best cheese-makers in the county, wrote to me as follows : — 
" During the cheese-making season I find it needful to be in the dairy by 
half-past five o'clock in the morning for an hour. Then there is an hour's 
release for breakfast. By that time the curd will be fit for breaking. Then 
there will be making it into cheese, which will take from two to two-and-a-half 
hours, excepting intervals of not more than a quarter of an hour twice during 
this time. It will then be about ten o'clock. If I have a good servant, I can 
then leave the cheese to her ; and it will be necessary for her to go to it in an 
hour to dry-cloth it, and again in two hours to salt it. With her assistance 
I have done with it till one o'clock. Then if cheese be made twice a day, this 
has all to "be repeated, commencing at four p.m. Those who profess that they 
cannot see what farmers' wives would have to do if they gave up cheese-making, 
must forget that such people are very frequently the mothers of families, and 
have them to attend to besides their usual housekeeping duties. I think there 
is really too much devolving on a farmer's wife who looks well to her dairy, and 
wishes to do her duty in a domestic way. Now that our family has grown 
up, and can share in the work, I do not find it very burdensome, and of course 
we take a pride in it. But there are man}- of ns who would be glad, never- 
theless, if the work could bo done as well without our doing it. When I 
commenced cheese-making, about twenty-four years ago, good dairy-girls were 
not so scarce as now. At the present time it is difficult to get a respectable 
servant who will undertake the work." 
Mrs. Bennett evidently thinks that heavy labour is not in 
itself a good. On the contrary, although there are many in- 
cidental compensations, it is in itself an evil ; and one of the 
greatest benefits which this generation has experienced is the 
gradual lightening of this evil by the substitution of horse and 
steam for hand. Why should not a benefit which has been so 
obvious on the farm and field be welcome in the dairy ? And 
why should the wife of a dairy farmer, who has been relieved 
by the cheese-factory system, be supposed more destitute ol 
occupation or home interest than the wife of another»farmer who 
may have never had a dairy to direct ? 
(4.) It is a distinct advantage of the factory system of dealing 
with the milk of a dairy-farm that every contributor can at an}' 
time draw upon the funds of the Association for a certain pro- 
portion of the value of the milk which he has delivered. The 
co-operative factory does a most legitimate and beneficial bank- 
ing business in this way. And if it be alleged that this is nc 
other service than has all along been rendered to needy .tenant; 
in the dairy districts by cheese-factors, who have always beer 
