FATHER RANNEY, THE CHEESE PIONEER.
This is our earliest cheese ode. The Ingersoll factory has been removed to Thamesford.
When Father Ranney left the States,
In Canada to try the fates,
He settled down in Dereham,
Then no dairyman lived near him;
He was the first there to squeeze
His cows' milk into good cheese,
And at each Provincial show
His famed cheese was all the go.
Then long life to Father Ranney
May he wealth and honour gain aye.
He always took the first prize
Both for quality and size,
But many of his neighbors
Now profit by his labors,
And the ladies dress in silk
From the proceeds of the milk,
But those who buy their butter,
How dear it is, they mutter.
Then long life to Father Ranney,
May he his health retain aye.
The farmers can not be beat,
They have both cheese and their wheat,
Though now their greatest care is
For to watch o'er their dairies,
They carefully fill their mows
With provender for their cows,
And they thus enrich the soil
With much profit for their toil.
We will sing this refrain aye,
Long life to Father Ranney.
The motto "union is strength"
Is carried out at length,
In the most compact array
At every cheese factory,
You'll see without going far as
There is one kept by Harris,
The factory of Ingersoll,
Just out at the first toll.
May he never suffer pain aye,
The Father of cheesemen Ranney.