20 JULY 1929, Page 14

Country Life

FARMERS AND CHEESE.

One of our official experts on the farms of Britain has been making a sort of census of the fortunes of our dairy farmers, and he finds that the most steadily prosperous are the cheese- makers. This is more or less a new development. At one time—as still in general estimation—there was no com- parison with the returns from selling milk or making it into cheese. One reason for the new values is the federation of the makers of Cheddar and of Cheshire cheeses. They supply a food of guaranteed and standard quality, as our buttermakers never have and probably never will. They have improved out of knowledge the art and craft of cheese- making as much as they have improved the art of marketing. The Ministry, from which the stimulus came, the Farmers' Union, and individual owners of dairy herds in the West have all had their share in this most welcome development.