SECRETARY'S REPORT. 113 



other places, to be sent South was urgent and so large as to affect 

 prices considerably even there. But the principal market abroad 

 is in England. In Great Britain there are thirty millions of inhab- 

 itants, more or less, and they eat a great deal more cheese than 

 the same number of Americans, whom we can supply with man- 

 ifest advantage to them and to us. The manufacture of cheese has 

 long been pursued there extensivel3^ The county of Chester has 

 been famous for centuries, insomuch that it is usuall}'- called Che- 

 shire, which is merely a slight contraction for Checse-shire. The 

 northern counties of England and the neighboring counties in 

 Scotland have also been largely engaged in it. But the price of 

 land is so dear that no farmer in Ejagland can produce a gallon of 

 milk at a less cost than six pence sterling, — equal to twelve cents 

 of our currency when exchange is at par, and considerably more 

 now that gold is at a premium. Of course no dairyman there can 

 sell cheese for less than the cost of the milk and the pay for mak- 

 ing it up. It is also a fact that meat sells in Great Britain at much 

 higher prices than it does here, and the British farmers have their 

 hands full, and more too, to make meat enough for home con- 

 sumption, and large quantities of cured meats, beef, pork, bacon, 

 &c., are annually imported. What reason, then, can be imagined 

 why we may not furnish them all the cheese required, with mutual 

 advantage ? Our facilities are such that we can surely make it 

 cheaper than they. There is no difficulty in sending it thither in 

 prime condition, and at a cost of only about one cent per pound ; 

 including freight, insurance, commissions, and all charges attend- 

 ing transportation. 



It required a long time to create the demand which now exists 

 in England for American cheese, and to Herkimer county, New 

 York, belongs the credit of accomplishing it. It was mainl}' effect- 

 ed by bringing a high degree of skill to bear upon the manufacture 

 generally, thus producing not only a good article, but one uniformly 

 good, or as near uniform as is possible, when made in many ftim- 

 ilies. Cheese had been sent abroad in small amounts for many 

 years, but when once, by good quality and uniformit}', it had 

 secured a firm foothold, the amount exported increased with aston- 

 ishing rapidity. By gradually increasing steps it had come to be 

 nine millions of pounds in 1859. In 1860 it amounted to twenty- 

 three millions; in 1861 to forty millions, and the amount has in- 

 creased steadily since then. 

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