Farmhouse to Factory
Preindustrial Europe In Europe, dairying
took hold on land that supported abundant
pasturage but was less suited to the cultivation
of wheat and other grains: wet Dutch
lowlands, the heavy soils of western France
and its high, rocky central massif, the cool,
moist British Isles and Scandinavia, alpine
valleys in Switzerland and Austria. With time,
livestock were selected for the climate and
needs of different regions, and diversified into
hundreds of distinctive local breeds (the
rugged Brown Swiss cow for cheesemaking in
the mountains, the diminutive Jersey and
Guernsey for making butter in the Channel
Islands). Summer milk was preserved in
equally distinctive local cheeses. By medieval
times, fame had come to French Roquefort
and Brie, Swiss Appenzeller, and Italian
Parmesan. In the Renaissance, the Low
Countries were renowned for their butter and