On Cheese-making in Home Dairies and in Factories. 285 
The Windley Hall Factory on the estate of Mr. J. G. Crompton 
was started on May 9 th, and closed for the year on November 
14th, 1873. During that time 86,974 gallons of milk were 
received from contributors, and yielded 34 tons 1 qr. and 20 lbs. 
of saleable cheese which was sold at 835. 7^d. per cwt. (120 lbs.), 
for 2851/. 18s. 9rZ. : butter and whey realised 142Z. 2s. in addi- 
tion ; and the 2998/. 5s. Qd., thus received, yielded no less than 
7^d. per gallon to the contributors, besides paying 168/. 7s. 9(/. 
for labour, materials, fuel, rent, and sundries, and leaving a 
balance of 21/. 7s. undistributed. In this case the labour had cost 
2s. 5d. per cwt. ; materials lOd. ; fuel od. ; rent 8|c?. ; sundry 
payments 3^d ; and no charge appears for marketing. 
We come now to the year 1874, and before stating the results 
of my inquiries on the manufacture of the past year at no fewer 
than six factories in Derbyshire, I will relate the history of one 
of the first of these factories, which has been established sim- 
ply by the labour of the contributing tenant-farmers who had 
resolved upon having one. 
The following account of the Holms Cheese Factory has been 
given to me by Mr. J. P. Sheldon, of Sheen, near Ashbourne, 
as the first which had been established by tenant-farmers exclu- 
sivelv — that is, without the aid of the leading landowners of 
the district. It has, of course, been started by the activity and 
energy of only a few who at length succeeded in overcoming the 
indifference or opposition of others ; but except in so far as it 
may have been prompted by the example set on the estates of 
the Hon. E. Coke and Mr. J. G. Crompton, to whom the credit 
of establishing the dairy-factory system in Derbyshire is due, 
the Holms Factory may be said to have owed nothing to ex- 
ternal influence or assistance. 
Mr. J. P. Sheldon had, in 1871, made a trip to the United 
States, to inspect the cheese-factory system there, in order that 
he might urge with the authority of an eye-witness the feasibility 
of the scheme. His impressions on this point were given at 
some length in the 'Milk Journal' of January, 1872. He now 
says : — 
"Whilst tbe Holms Factory was being built, the site on which it stands- 
was designated 'Fools' Corner; ' but this name, and the prejudice in which it 
Lad its birth, have both died away, except in a few incurably ' long-horned'" 
instances, and, generally speaking, the factory system of cheese-making is 
now looked upon with cordial approval among us. 
_ " Some farmers were under the necessity of, at all events, simulating opposi- 
tion to the scheme, because wives would not relinquish the butter-money. 
This perquisite they could not forego. Also pigs were an element of discord. 
* How about losing my pig-manure ?' said the farmer. ' On what must I rear 
my calves and feed my pigs if you take all the milk away ?' said the farmer's 
