The Doom of Devonshire Cream.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 25 October 1890, Page 2

The Doom of Devonshire Cream.

"Is it not a pathetic thing," writes a correspondent from South Devon " that among the links with the past doomed to a speedy extinction should be the valued institution of Devonshire cream ? It in threatened — and, indeed, the threat has already beon carried out. We shall always have the name, but the local habitation will be a matter of nv-mory boon, and of history by« find-by. In old times Devonshire cream was a specific commodity. Very rich milk was scalded over a peat-fire, and the result was Devon, shire cream and whoy. Just in the same way, the best ham was smokecured pork, and very good it was till the spread of knowledge reached the country villages round which the farmers lived. Chemistry stepped in to supply a substitute — a reliable and rapidly operating substitute — for smoke curing, and pyroligneoua acid has deprived us of ham. The Devonshire farmers know a thing or two in advance of the old peat fire*. They use coal to warm the milk, and they use separators to extract the cream. The result is most satisfactory—to the farmers. No doubt the dairy is much more productive, and what goes for Devonshire cream starts on that journey all over England. But the old rich, sweet, full, wholesome confection has almost dissappeared. A few villages, luckily remote from railway stations, keep to the old traditions." If any tourist finds one of them our correspondent advises him to keep the knowledge to himself, aud to profit by it.