Dainj-Farming in the Netherlands. 
529 
soon after birth, and the herds appear to be generally kept up 
by purchases. Everything is subordinate to the making of 
cheese. 
The best farmers keep from 24 to 30 cows and feed off 
annually from one-fourth to one-fifth of the oldest and least 
profitable. The farm-houses are of the true Dutch type, namely, 
dwelling-house in front with cow-stalls, stables, barn, &c., under 
the same roof in the rear. Cows are in two rows, heads to the 
centre, with drinking-troughs in front, and manure and urine- 
trough in the rear. The passage between the rows of stalls is 
very broad, and at the end of the steading is a detached Dutch 
barn exactly opposite the passage, and designed to store the 
hay in a convenient position for its conveyance into the cow- 
house, ^lany of the farmers are proprietors, and it is said that 
the majority of the tenants have been able to pay their rents, 
at any rate until those of 1879 became due, when many found 
a difficulty, and some could not overcome it. This arose chiefly 
from the low price of cheese, which in the autumn of 1879 
touched- as low a figure as 425. per cwt., whereas in June 1880 
it ranged from 525. to 57^., and even more. In fact, the variation 
in prices may be set down at about 20^. per cwt. Considering 
that the Gouda farmer sells nothing to speak of except cheese 
and cast cows, a depreciation of over 30 per cent, in the price 
of his staple product is very serious ; indeed, unless he has a 
large reserve, it is simply ruinous. Until recently, the making 
of so-called "Derbyshire" cheese gained ground, as its shape 
and its less salty flavour enabled it to be sold as English. But 
the recent large consignments of American cheese have turned 
the tide in favour of what can be sold as real Dutch, and the 
farmers are now altering their practice back again to the native 
make. The first spring-made cheese is always so fat that it 
i>ever becomes really hard, and this finds a ready sale in France. 
The best quality of hard cheese goes to England, and the worst, 
as a rule, finds its best market in Scotland. The cheese-mer- 
chants in this district evidently do a thriving business, and it 
is no fault of the farmers, their wives, or their children, if they 
lo not make and save money. Blouses and sabots are the rule 
lor everybody connected with the cheese business ; and if the 
people have luxurious habits they are invisible to a foreigner, 
unless, it may be, their Sunday outings are subject to that 
reproach. Labourers are highly paid, as wages go in the 
Netherlands. They get 2s. 6c?. per day in the summer and 
is. %d. to 2s. in the winter, and they pay from \s. 6d. to Is. 8rf. 
per week for their cottage, which, as usual, consists of one room 
and an outhouse. 
In the Gouda district the dairy is generally a separate build- 
VOL. XVIII. — s. S. 2 M 
