t 



ON THE MANUFACTURE OF CHEESE 



AS AN ARTICLE OF EXPORT, BY MEANS OF ASSOCIATED DAIRIES. 



A large portion of my report l%st year was occupied with a con- 

 sideration of the dairy, a-nd more particularly with the manufacture 

 of cheese. The extensive introduction into this State of a branch 

 of industry so profitable as this is at the present time, and prom- 

 ises to be in the future, appears to me a matter of so great impor- 

 tance, that it is deemed a duty to submit some farther remarks on 

 the subject at the present time. In order to correct any erroneous 

 impressions previously received, to obtain additional facts, and to 

 ascertain with certainty the developments of another year, I again 

 went over the principal cheese dairying districts of the United 

 States during the past summer. Although comparatively little 

 was learned to add to the report of last year, in regard to the best 

 process of manufacture, a good deal was ascertained regarding 

 the importance of dairying as a branch of rural industry, and the 

 progress of associated action in carrying it on. 



In the first place, there can be no doubt that it is, at the present 

 time, profitable beyond al^y other branch of stock husbandry.* 

 The belief is entertained by many of our most intelligent farmers, 

 that the amount of vegetable food which will produce one gallon 

 of milk when fed to a good milk cow, as now used by farmers gen- 

 erally in the rearing of young stock to sell, does not actually 

 secure to them a return of more than four cents ; many set it as 

 as low as three cents and a few as high as five cents. Now a gal- 

 lon of good milk will make a pound of cheese, and good cheese 

 hafc3 been bringing, for a twelve-month past, from twelve to sixteen 



* The opinion was confidently expressed by many farmers on the Western Reserve, 

 (Ohio) where cheese-dairying and sheep-husbandry have long been the leading 

 pursuits, that at the present prices of both, cheese-making was decidedly the more 

 profitable of the two. 



