No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 841 



Mouiitain region. Ju I he U'li'itoiy to the east of the old iirovin<-e 

 of Boiivgogne (Buvgaiuly) were foniicrly the district or sub-proviuce 

 called the Frauche-Comte and the duchy of Savoy. Here are now 

 to be found tlie Departments of Doubs, Jura, L'Ain, Savoy and 

 Upper Savoy. These are all east and a little north from the city 

 of Lyons and not far west from the Swiss cities of Geneva and 

 Neuchatel. This region is the seat of activity in the manufacture 

 of Gruyere cheese, and is full of interest not only as to present con- 

 ditions but as regards the history of associated dairying. It is 

 essentially a mountain industry; mountain pastures, mountain cat- 

 tle and a comparatively scattered mountain population, contribute 

 to its characteristics. The cattle of the country have been for 

 centuries a large, coarse, red-and-wliite variety, known by the name 

 of Montbeliarde; this is a regional type, if not a breed, resembling 

 its neighbor the Simmenthal breed of Switzerland. 



The most notable feature of the cheese-making of the French Jura 

 region is that it has been carried on from a very early period under 

 a well-defmed local system of co-operation among the milk-pro- 

 ducers and cheese-makers. It has been claimed and believed that 

 the plan of associated dairying originated in the United States near 

 the middle of the XlXth century and was first developed in the 

 form of the co-operative cheese factor^-. Collectively, the cheese 

 factories and butter factories or creameries of this country have 

 been designated as "the American system." But whatever honor 

 or credit attaches to the origin of this idea and practice of co-opera- 

 tion in dairying, must be surrendered to Eastern France. The plan 

 has been known and followed continuously in this mountain region 

 between France and Switzerland for several centuries. It undoubt- 

 edly originated in that region, but how long ago, no one knows. 

 There exists a historical record of co-operative cheese-making in 

 the Xlllth century, in the present Department of Doubs, and no 

 document of like age is known which refers to a like industry in 

 any other country. In the middle of the XlVth century little asso- 

 ciations for cheese-making were numerous and active in Upper 

 Jura. In the XVIIth century, their number and work were so im- 

 portant in the Franche-Comte as to be subject of special laws. 

 These associations became w-ell organized and quite numerous two 

 hundred years ago. • Examples of the articles of association and of 

 contracts between the society and its several members, as to con- 

 tributions or sales of milk, and also as to cheese sales, are still pre- 

 served, which are 200 years old or more. It is hardly expedient to 

 further follow here the history of these little factories, or their 

 present organization and operations, interesting as they are. 



Although the variety of cheese for which the whole Jura region 

 has been noted, is not believed to have been materially changed in 

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