KILMARNOCK CHEESE SHOW.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume VI, Issue 593, 21 March 1882, Page 2

KILMARNOCK CHEESE SHOW.

Of the cheese show held at the above place on October last, the Ayr Observer says : —For many years this show has been acknowledged the chief in the Kingdom as regards cheese, the dairy farmers in the south-west of Scotland having excelled the midland districts of England for the famous Cheddar. The original and staple product of Ayrshire was the well-known Dunlop cheese, but after the introduction of the Cheddar method the manufacture of the former article gradually grew less and less, till it is now confined to a very few individuals. Indeed, there was a complaint yesterday that there seemed to be too little attention paid to the Dunlop method of making cheese, and expression was given to the hope that this would be remedied so that the district may uphold its good name for tbe manufacture of the native article. Last year it will be remembered that complaints were made of the mottled colour of the cheese, caused by the annatto not being thoroughly mixed with the curd. This year, so far as the cheese for competition was concerned, there was little complaint on that head, and while this may be owing lo additional care on the part of the linkers, it may also be due to the careful selection of the samples laid out on the tables. In the ton lots, however, no such method of selection is allowed, and the cheese must be taken at random from the stock in the cheese room. Here a goodly number were four.d mottled, and a careful examination disclosed the fact that from one-third to one-sixth of the whole chow in this department were more or less discolored. No doubt this will be remedied, and knowing as the dairy farmers do that discoloration takes away to a certain extent from the value of the article, greater care will be exercised in the mixing of the coloring matter with the curd. The quality of the cheese shown was equal to last year, though it was noticed that some of the lots had been too quickly fired. A great advance was noticeable in the class confined to Ayrshire exhibitors ; indeed, it is reckoned that this county has made more progress in the manufacture of cheese within the last few years than any other dist:ict in Scotland.