Dairying and Corn Growing. 
221 
consumer, doing away with three most useful products of the 
farm : namely, cheese, butter, and bacon. The local abandon- 
ment of these articles of food has opened the gate wide — fairly 
or unfairly — to importation ; or perhaps, to speak more truly, 
the importation of these commodities has closed it upon local 
effort. The old Derbyshire plain cheese has become a thing of 
the past. A vast difference has taken place in price too, since 
this old make used to command prices of from 70s. to 80s. per 
cwt., compared with the present day make, for what little is 
made is sold at a price of from 50s. to 65s. per cwt. 
Some of the Danish butter of the best kind compares very 
favourably with the home-made, especially as to keeping pro- 
perties, but no foreign cheese compares in quality with that 
which used to be made in our best home dairies. The Stilton 
seems to be the only sort able to hold its own. Our close 
neighbours appear to monopolise the market and have done 
so for years. Why Leicestershire is the only county adapted 
to this make, and why other counties are not enterprising 
enough to undertake the making of Stilton cheese, it is difficult 
to say. 
Corn growing is very much out of the question in the 
northern parts of the county, but with the depreciation in the 
price of corn this need not be greatly regretted. A much less 
breadth is now sown in the southern half of the county than 
was the case some twenty years ago, and a large quantity of 
land has been laid down to permanent pasture, particularly 
upon strong, unworkable farms. Upon some “ dairy farms ” 
(if entitled to this name, now that all the milk is sold off) all 
the arable land has been so served, save just sufficient for the 
cultivation of roots, or of alternate crops of corn and roots. A 
sort of two course system is adopted, roots being grown as 
often as possible, in some cases year by year if a good supply 
of farmyard manure, night-soil when near a town, or liquid 
manure from tanks can be commanded at a reasonable cost. 
The rotation has for its sole aim the production of milk. This 
system has of course materially altered the style of farming, 
and has practically done away with the ordinary four, five, or 
six course rotations ; but in some measure, where a good price 
for the milk can be maintained, the occupation has been a trifle 
more remunerative, a relief which for years has been sadly 
needed. 
Great strides have been made in the county during the last 
quarter of a century in the breeding of the Shire horse, and in 
this respect the Derbyshire farmer and breeder takes up a 
prominent position, backed up by the Shire Horse Society. A 
horse that exercised great influence in the improvement of 
the breed was “ William the Conqueror.” This celebrated sire 
