BUTTER AND CHEESE MAKING.

Gisborne Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1434, 19 April 1905, Page 2

BUTTER AND CHEESE MAKING.

That the employment of women for ordinary field work has almost died out in England is ' hardly a matter for regret. But the difficulty of finding women to undertake butter and cheese making, osiT which Mr Wilson Fox comments in his report on agriculture, threatens to become serious. Naturally (says an English paper) the causes that have operated unfavorably against farming have their part in tho decline of tho butter and cheese making industries, but if better days are in store for the farmer, as some think, the distaste which the women of h.ia family have evinced towards occupations in which thoir grandmothers took both pride and pleasure must bo successfully combated. Much is being done to bring within their reach practical instructioiFin the best methods of hard and soft cheese and batter making, and in the management of cows and small dairies. Bat interest in these domestio arts has languished in too many quarters, and tha question is how it may be revived. County education authorities are beiog urged to see that in country districts the lessons in elementary schools should bear more direct reference to rural conditions, and should be made indirectly as well as directly a means of promoting a knowledge of matters which shall bo of permanent service to tho children after tboir sohool-life 1b at an efid. It is excellent advice, and might very well be laid to heart by the managers cf secondary schools in the same districts. Nature study is. already being encouraged, one questions tho healthful and pleasurable enjoyment to bo derived from gardening. Tho garden is to be the magnot to draw men “ back to the land,” and pooplo who have gardens already write books absc them that fill with envy all those wh have not. Yes, if George Eliot is to be bi lieved, there are resources in a dairy tha are sought in vain elsewhere :—“ Therql nothing like a dairy if folks want a bit ot worrit to make the day pass. For as for rubbing furniture, when you can once sea your face in a table there is nothing else to look for, but there is always some fresh with the dairy, for even in the winter there’s some pleasure in conquering the butter and making it home, whether or no. You’ll never be dull when you've got a dairy.” ; : -