-young’s TRAVELS IN FRANCE.
583
to granulate the curd, and, united with fo finall a prefiure, leaves cavities in the textureof the cheefe, that fill with an oleaginous liquid, and form the peculiar excellence ofParmefan chcefe. With the methods ufed in England, fuch cavities fpoil a cheefe. Imud, however, remark that fuch Parmefan as was common many years ago, in whichthefe cavities, and their contents were of a texture that would allow of drawing out likea thread of glue, is not fo common now. The folid cheefe, without cavities, commofiat prefent, is not much better than our North Wiltlhire, and is apt to dry muchfooner, if equally kept. Quarc , if this declenfion of quality is not to be imputed to theirploughing all the country ? When their cheefe gained its great reputation, it was madefrom old meadows; now all is from arable land. Here it is kept five or fix years—never till ten. Walking with the farmer, the mailer of eighty cows, into his fields(1750 pertiche), I begged him to pick the plants in the order of his eflimation forcheefe,which he did ;—firfl, trifolium repens; fecond, trfolium pratenfe and plant a golanceolata equal; third, chicorium intybus. 1 hefe he efteemed capital. The ranuncu-lus repens bad ; all the.graffes, properly fo called, bad, on companion with thofe above ;but lolium perenne the belt, if it come naturally ; bad, if fown. Gallega officinalis bad.They fometimes do not fow any thing to make a meadow, leaving the wheat-ltubble tocover itfelf; a barbarous practice, fince they confefs that in the firlt year it yields little.There were dung-hills in mofl of the fields, well mixed and rotten, to be fpread in win-ter. Feed the cows, in winter, only wi'h hay, and twenty pounds, of twenty-eightounces, the daily allowance ; the price now livres per one hundred pounds. I forgotto remark, that all the milk trays are of copper ; and that ice is in every dairy, to putinto the churns with the cream. The cows are here fed, as every where elfe in the Mi-lanefe,.but a few hours in twenty-four; yet longer than in feme diftriCts, for they areabroad feven hours; they eat nothing while ti ;d up in the fheds.
In 1733, there were in the Lodizan one hundred and ninety-feven dairies : in 1767there were two hundred and thirty-fix, each of which had one hundred and twenty,cows, on an average, making two hundred and ninety cheefes each dairy per ann. ; inthirty-four years increafe—thirty-nine dairies, four thoufand fix hundred and eighty cows,.eleven thoufand three hundred and ten cheefes, and value 848,210 livres*. This isCount Carli’s account, but I fufpeCl an error f, as I heard no hints of any decline; andat Codogno , the dairies were calculated,.apparently with attention, at two hundred andithirteen each, making three hundred and ten cheefes in a year, or fixty-fix thoufand •and thirty cheefes, of fifty pounds each, or 3,301,500 pounds, of twenty-eight ounces,at one livre a pound ; this makes 110,047!. and the account I received was, that, of thisquantity, two-thirds were exported.
In regard to the origin of this cheefe, it deferves notice, that it is not three centuriesfince this great advantage of irrigated meadows has been here known ; and I may ob-ferve, that the Cifterfian monk who has written fo well — Sull’Irrigazioni de Prati, in theAtti della Societa Pat. di Milano, feems to admit, that the original manufactures of Par-mefan cheefe was in the territory of Parma ; and refers to original papers for {hewing thatMilan was fupplied three centuries ago with this cheefe from Parma. A clearer proofof this cannot be produced, than that in the ledgers of the monaftery of Chiaravalle,there are entries of the purchafe of cheefe from Parma, which, moft affuredly, could nothave taken place, if fuch cheefes had been made at home. And this feems to be con-
* Carli, tom. I. p. ^17.
f It muft be a grofs error to calculate the dairies at one hundred and twenty cows, on an average ; forin all my inquiries I heard but of one that reached one hundred and ten.
firmed