Report of James H. Brown, 



Hon. FuED. C. ScHRAUB, Commissioner of Agriculture: 



I have the honor to submit this, my fifth annual report for the 

 fourth division of the department, comprising the counties of 

 Oswego, Oneida, Herkimer, Hamilton, Fulton, Montgomery, 

 Warren and Essex, for the year ending September 30, 1895. 



This is almost entirely a dairy division, the products of the 

 dairy being the chief source of income, so for this reason I have 

 always deemed it wise and advisable to devote much of our time 

 to the betterment of the dairy industry and the improvement of 

 dairy products; not only having in view the financial benefits ac- 

 cruing to the dairy farmers by .producing a larger amount of an 

 improved quality, but also to satisfy the consumers that dairy 

 products as produced, manufactured and sold here, were bj- far 

 the purest articles of food jjlaced upon our markets. It has 

 always been our aim to encourage and assist in every way possible 

 our producers and dealers to place upon our markets a product 

 that, because of its purity and superiority, w'ould commend itself 

 for home consumption, believing that if we produced an article 

 of this kind it would find a ready market at a fair price, 

 and we would hear no more the fallacy ^' over production." I 

 have at all times discountenanced the manufacture of skim cheese, 

 because I believe this article to be the prime cause of the cheese 

 product of this great State being in such a deplorable condition. I 

 am fully aware that I am exposing myself to criticism, and that at 

 the present I am in the almost hopeless minority, jet, I believe it 

 to be tnie, and am thoroughly satisfied that the time will soon 

 come when the people of this State will i-ealize the serious mistake 

 made. 



In order to emi)]iasize the importance of this division and to show 

 the serious disadvantages we have to work under, I ask your par- 



