EXHIBITION OF 1868. 
441 
English shippers were constantly boasting of the superiority of English 
cheese, and could not afford, they said, to pay for American the same price. 
No practical works on English cheese making could be had, and none has 
been written that is considered of any value by English dairymen. It has 
happened that the good writers are not cheese makers, and the cheese 
makers are not good writers. Besides, the English dairymen are opposed to 
having all the secrets of this art printed. But again, there is not a cheese 
maker living that can explain on paper all the mysteries of his art, nor is 
there one that can always handle milk so as to avoid difficulties and an 
occasional inferior product. 
The most celebrated chemists are unable to explain correctly the nature of 
rennet,—the coagulating principle used in cheese manufacture. The cheese 
maker must not therefore rely wholly on a mere set of rules, he must under¬ 
stand principles. I found various processes in operation in the various 
shires or counties. In all these, excepting the Cheddar jorocess, I was greatly 
disappointed. The Cheshire, the Wiltshire, the Double and Single Gloster 
and other methods are defective and extremely laborious. The implements 
are outlandish, and belong to a past age of the world. The dairy people in 
the different districts, are tenacious of their practice, and adhere to it with 
a dogged pertinacity, notwithstanding the Cheddar dairymen, under their 
improved system, are beating them in the markets from 10s to 30s sterling 
the hundred weight. Much of their cheese is manufactured by guess, and 
varies in character according to the skill and experience of the dairymaid. 
There is scarcely a thing in any of these processes (the Cheddar excepted) 
that would be of any service to us, and if introduced here, would be a 
positive damage. American cheese is richer and better made, and is 
acknowledged by the best judges in Great Britain to surpass in every respect 
these styles as they are commonly made. The Cheddar, however, is ^a very 
high character of English cheese, and commands a very high price. Its good 
qualities have not been overrated. Their best samples have rarely been 
equalled and neven' surpassed in American dairies. The quantity made is com¬ 
paratively small. It takes its name from a small village at the foot of the 
Mendip hills in Somerset county, its manufacture there having been com¬ 
menced more than a hundred years ago. 
Various improvements have been made in the process, until it has been 
reduced to a system, which is at once simple and philosophical. It may be 
said to be a chemical process, requiring skill and judgment in the manage¬ 
ment of acids, until the curd has passed through its different stages, and is 
properly developed for the press. Its leading principles are similar to those 
now practiced by our best cheese makers, and it is due to them that Ameri¬ 
can cheese has been able to obtain such a firm foothold in the English mar¬ 
ket. The early expulsion of the whey in the English process, together with 
the exposure, of the curd a longer time to the atmosphere, the pressing, 
grinding and saltings are doubtless improvements upon our practice. I need 
not go into detail upon these points; they have been fully explained in my re- 
