Agricultural History Review, Volume 51 Part 2 (2003), pp. 190–208

Survival strategies for the local economy of the Pays de Bray highlight the attractiveness of its ‘green’ landscapes of pastures, woodlands and orchards that contrast with the surrounding arable plateaux of northern France. The area has benefited from its relative proximity to Paris, its environmental resources, and the entrepreneurial skills of its farmers to develop an important range of dairying activities, comprising traditional farm-produced cheeses (Neufchâtel fermier) and numerous factory-made varieties, as well as butter. The history of this specialisation is traced from the mid-eighteenth century. Attention is drawn to the transformation of the discipline of distance as a result of road improvements and railway construction in the nineteenth century. Production increasingly became factory-based and although farm cheese production is now only a pale shadow of its former importance, it has recently received Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC) status. 

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