and its adaptability to English Dairy Districts. 203 
of the remainder of the arg-umcnt, and ask whether it is a fair 
payment for the incessant drudgery and discomfort which inevit- 
ably accompanies family cheese-making. 
Suppose a dairy of forty cows — a fair average size for the con- 
ditions of the case — each cow yielding 4 cwts. of cheese per 
annum, and presuming that the cost of anatto, salt, bandages, 
&c., would be the same at home * as at the factory, we have 
8 tons of cheese per annum, the cost for manufacturing which at 
a factory in America, where labour is dear, would be J(Z. 
per lb. If we say bl. per ton would be the cost of making, the 
annual payment on this head would be 40Z. per annum. But it 
is a proved fact that factory cheese sells at an average price 
of lO.v. per cwt. (10/. per ton) above that made at private dairies, 
chiefly on account of its uniformity, but also to some extent on 
account of its superior quality, both attributes being the result 
of the employment of skilled labour. The extra receipts on 
this head would amount to 80/. per annum for all cheese but that 
of the very best dairy-farmers, and the household inconveniences 
would thus be got rid of, not only without cost, but with a con- 
siderable bonus into the bargain. Another advantage would be 
the saving of capital invested in dairy-apparatus, and the saving 
of annual outlay for repairs, &c.t Again, if the factory were 
established on the joint-stock principle, as sketched out in Mr, 
Willard's letter, the dairy-farmer would receive his dividend as a 
shareholder; and he might, not impossibly, find this branch of 
dairying as profitable as any other. 
Having thus endeavoured to give an impartial description of 
the various aspects of this question, I leave it in the hands of 
English dairy-farmers and tlieir landlords to consider whether 
their interest requires them to take any active steps with a 
view of establishing: cheese-factories in England. 
XI. — On the Treatme.nt of the Reclaimed Bog-land of 
Whittlesea Mere. By W. Wells, M.p. 
A Papek was written in the twenty-first volume of the Society's 
* Journal ' on the drainage of VVhittlesjc Mere, and in it, besides 
other matter, a short account was given of the process of spreading, 
upon a part of the surrounding tract of peat-bog, a coating of 
soil, of an average thickness of five inches, taken from the bed 
of the mere. From the point whence the soil was taken, to the 
* They would be somewhat more ; the diflference being that between retail 
prices and wholesale. 
t A larger quantity of cheese would probably be obtained from a given quan- 
tity of milk than can be got under the existing system. 
