LANCASHIRE DAIRY FARMING.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2633, 14 September 1882, Page 4

LANCASHIRE DAIRY FARMING.

If [" Mark Lane Express."] Few writers on the ohesse making counties of England ever make mention of Lanca■hire. Most likoly the reason of the onus[sionisthe fact that nearly *U the make of ■Mr county goes into local consumption. beyond some little sold in the towns in Westmoreland and Cumberland, Lancashire cheese is eaten by Lancashire people. Some yeaio ago there was a much larger quantity sold into the two counties named, and also a fan demand from Belfast, but by the introduction about thirty years ago, of. a new mode cf salting the cheese, the keeping and carrying properties of Lancashire oheeße hare so much deteriorated as to exriaguiah the Iruh trado, and oausod a groat decrease in the sale in the two northern counties. Scotch Cheddars, whioh are remarkable for being excellent carriers and keepers, have superseded Lancashire in all the places named. The mggregate oake is still much larger than is generally supposed. It nai decreased of late yeaw from the following causes:—lncrease of population of manufacturing towns requiring a larger milk supply, gradual growth of the wholesale milk sale sent by rail; by extension of cattle feeding j lastly, by many makers laoking skill to produce a paying article. At the present rente, and with the severe American competition, the making of inferior cheese must be a very losing concern. Taking the three " Hundreds" of the-county whioh are devoted to cheese and butter making, milk selling, with acme cattle feeding, the area thus devoted may be estimated at 200,000 to 250,000 acres. Lancashire cannot b? called a butter pro. during county, though a considerable weight ia made, but there are comparatively few butter farms {i.e., where all the mdk is turned to that prod not), and these are mostly in the Fell districts. Most of the cheese makers skim the night's milk, and those who profess to supply "new milk " (delivered by means of spring oarti direct from the producer to the consumer) also extensively skim the milk yielded at night. These two classes snake butter and sell it at the local markets—partly direct to the consumer, and partly to retail shopkeepers. Preston may be. considered the head quarters of the Lancashire oheese trade, and_ the districts are generally known as Over Kibble (south of that river), The Fylde (which is washed on its west side by the sea), Over Wyre (the country east of that river), Over Lune (north of that river), and the range of Sell district whioh slopes on the east side down to Yorkshire vales. The Hundred of Amounderness is really the homo of cheese making, and there has been less decrease is the production there than any other part of L the county. Ia the Over .Kibble district (in the Hundred of Leyland) sending milk by rail to Liverpool has largely decreased the make of cheese; and, singularly enough the quality there produced has greatly deteriorated. Forty years ago choice toasting cheese, for whioh Lancashire is celebrated, was all drawn'from that district, and the makers in those bygone days used to speak with ~~ great contempt of the quality of Fylde cheese; now nearly all the toasting cheese is made in the latter district, and while the change named is creditable as far as it goes, it is to be regretted that it is not more extensive, there being an unlimited demand for that choice class, and always at high prices. The quantity of milk sent by rail from Fylde, Over Wyre, and Fell districts is comparatively small. Next to the decrease in the make of cheese in Over Bibble is that in Over Lune and the Fell districts, arising mainly there from the extension of cattle feeding. The Over Lune district is the northern portion of Lonsdale Honored south of the Sands, and the south of that Hundred adjoins that of Amoundenets. The number of oows per farm in the dairying districts will not average more than or fifteen, there being quite as many below that average as above; a few of the very largest dairies number thirty cowb. Few farms keep what are known in Cheshire and' some other counties as dairymaids —that is, females whose duty is oheese-making. As a rule the farmers' wives perform that work, assisted, of course, in ' the heavier and least skilful part by a female servant. There is no trustworthy, data as to the proportion of grass land ta arable in the district inoluded Si the 200,000 to 250,000 acres before named, but a rough average may be taken by giving one-half as arable. In that area wheat and oats are the ohief grain crops, mostly the -former. Potatoes are largely grown in Over Bibble and Over Wyre, as of reclaimed moss land. The farmers in the area we are speaking of are said to " grow a little of everything," and this is largely the case. Each farm has a small orchard, poultry are kept and fattened and eggs sold, and pigs are bred and reared, the Bale of young pigs being very profitable. The farmers' wives in past times have been remarkable for their thriftiness, both they and their husbands giving evidence of being thoroughly orthodox in the belief of the doctrine that " " every little makes a mickle." Formerly late marriages were the rule, followed by the severest eoonomy in dress and everything else, together with rigorous saving of expenditure in every department; of late years marriages are mnoh earlier. To the small miscellaneous items of income, together with that from crops, cattle, oheese and butter, must be added the profits arising from horse breeding, for which the Fylde has been noted and is fast becoming famous. Hence the Lancashire farms are fully oooupied. With the exoeption of 1878, oheese, taking the average of years, has fetohed goad and paying prices, except where the makers lacked skill. - Aa they are generally sold very new, there is Settle shr.nkage in weight. Butter has also fetched fair prices. Potatoes recently have been low, and ia the Over Bibble districts, besides the lowneis of price there have been losses from floods. In the reoent wet season

the yield of milk per oow has been less, and added to that, the animals when needed to be ■old off have been in inferior condition, thus entailing further loss. Bents, as in other counties, have gone up, and though the tenants In those portions of the county alluded to in .jhis article have weathered the storm far better (than in the grain-growing oounties, yet there i ii a necessity for some rod notion in rents, little or nothing having as yet been done in that direction. Better farm houses arc required, if a first-rate cheese has to be produced, which is the only kind that ought to be made. Where new houses have been ereoted, the architects and agents in many cases seem to have been ignorant of the requirements of a cheese making farm. Better milk houses have been generally supplied in the new ereotions, but no thought beyond that seems to have been given. To be suitably fitted up there ought to bo two keeping rooms, one for summer and another for winter, also proper accommodation for the delicate and difficult process of converting the milk into a solid mass of curd, destined to become a rich, mellow and fine-flavored cheese. The owners, agents and architects might profitably proeeed for instructions to the next county, and see what Lord Tollemaohe has done for his dairy tenants, who hare now every possible facility for producing ■n excellent article, the kind always in demand even in the worst of times, and which is the one kind that defies American competition.