548 Somersetshire Farm-Prize Competition, 1875. 
!Mendip Hills. The Judges will not easily forget their journey 
up the hill to reach it : the road was so steep that it was as 
much as a pair of horses could do to draw the empty waggonette 
up the hill ; yet the milk at certain seasons of the year has to 
be brought from there, two miles distant, twice a-day. In the- 
third place, the premises are exceedingly small, and very incon- 
venient for carrying on the business of the farm, more especially 
the house for the process of cheese-making from the produce of 
from 48 to 50 cows : it seems marvellous how any landlord .in 
the present improving age can permit such poor buildings to 
remain, and his tenant to reside in such a house. There is not 
shelter for a score of animals in the yards. The whole of the 
buildings are as inconvenient as can well be imagined. The 
cider is kept in the barn, and what should be the " hog-tiih house," 
for want of better storage. The house is very small ; there are 
only two small rooms and the dairy, in which, to use the common 
expression, " there is not room to swing a cat." 
In the dairy, with which we have most to do, there is hardly 
room to walk round the cheese-tub to perform the necessary 
operations. As to the cheese-loft, it is merely a small bed- 
room, in which, on our first inspection, there was a fine lot 
of 4 tons of cheese, the floor being supported by sundry 
pieces of timber. A fire was blazing in the grate to keep up 
the temperature, and at that time of the year was certainly an 
advantage to the whole house. The bedrooms are in close 
proximity to the cheese-loft, and in the warm summer weather 
the inmates must be overwhelmed with the smell of cheese in 
the sleeping apartments. ^Notwithstanding all these drawbacks, 
everything indoors and out was in good order, and the manage^ 
ment as good as could be expected under such circumstances. 
The cheese appeared to be of first-rate quality last year, the 
price averaging SOs. per cwt. Mrs. Day superintends the whole 
of the operations herself. The Cheddar svstem is adopted by 
j\Irs. Day, and is rather different from the system reported as 
practised on Air. Gibbons's farm. The morning's and evening's 
milk being put into the tub, and a portion of the latter heated 
so as to raise the whole to 80° Fahr., a little sour whey is 
used with the rennet. If the weather is not too warm, it stands 
an hour, or about that time, when coagulation takes place. The 
curd is then cut with a long thin knife and broken a little : it 
is afterwards allowed to settle for a short time, wlicn a portion 
of the whey is dipped off, and heated to 140° Fahr. by floating 
on the boiler in tin vessels ; it is then poured into the tub, and 
the breaking of the curd is completed. It is allowed to settle 
again ; more whey is dipped off, and heated to 160° Fahr., 
and the process is repeated until the curd is raised to 100° Fahr., 
