Report on Cheshire Dairy- Farminrj. 
that the agriculture of the county generally has undergone much 
alteration. There are, however, some farms which exhibit features 
not fully described in that Report, and to two of these attention 
is particularly drawn in the following pages. Good cheese- 
making is by no means a consequence of good farming, any more 
than good bread is an invariable product of good wheat; and it 
therefore frequently happens that the dairymaid is unskilful, 
while the farmer himself is much further advanced than his 
neighbours, or vice versa. 
The method of making Cheshire cheese was described in detail 
by Mr. White * twenty-four years ago ; and thirteen years later, 
in 1858, he gave a most interesting report on the Exhibition of 
Cheese at Chester,t in which will be found additional information 
on the subject, particularly with regard to modern improvements. 
It is, therefore, unnecessary for me to describe the process again, 
more especially as it does not appear sufficiently near the standard 
of perfection, as a labour-saving process, to render it probable that 
it will be imported into other districts.^ 
Modes of Cultivation. 
There are two systems of farming pursued by Cheshire dairy- 
men. The simpler method is tliatof permanent grass and arable 
land, in varying proportions, but entirely distinct from each other ; 
the other method is that of " convertible tillage," where each 
portion of the farm is in turn laid down with seeds for a series 
of years, and broken up in rotation — there being comparatively 
little or, in some cases, no permanent grass. Both the farms 
which are described in the following pages are examples of the 
latter system of dairy-farming ; they were selected as types of a 
practice which is not so common as the other, and which has not 
been so frequently described. The report on them will convey 
some idea of the effect of the cattle-plague on the agriculture of 
a county which suffered more than any other, by bringing into 
relief the methods resorted to for the purpose of substituting, at 
any rate temporarily, some other farming practice in the place of 
dairying. 
One example of the " convertible tillage " system is seen on 
Crouchley Farm, near Lymm, in the occupation of Mr. Whitlow. 
The outside measurement is 263 acres, but the actual extent of 
workable land is a trifle under 240 acres. Of this area, previous 
to the cattle-plague, one-fourth, viz. 60 acres, were annually in 
* ' Journal of the Royal Agriciiltui al Society,' vol. vi. p. 102. 
t Hid., vol. xix. p. 4U0. 
X Mr. Wiilard, of Herkimer Comity, New York, considered it half a century 
b'hind th" American process. — Vide 'Report of the Department of Agricultuiv,' 
ls£iG, p. 37-'3. 
