62 THIRTIETH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



Your many manufacturing - towns make a market for your 

 private dairy which we have not got in Canada. Our market 

 we most often find out of our own country ; therefore we find 

 it pays us best to manufacture cheese, although our butter in- 

 dustry is growing rapidly. At the present time cheese is 

 worth twelve cents per pound, and with us, with cheese at ten 

 to twelve cents per pound, the cheese factories can pay their 

 patrons more than the creameries can; hence our creameries 

 during the past season have had a hard struggle in keeping- 

 up the supply of milk in competition with the cheese factories. 



Perhaps it would not be out of place for me to make a compar- 

 ison between the exports of cheese from Canada and the 

 United States. I am aware we have a proverb about compar- 

 ison, but you will pardon me if I do make one. In 1870 the 

 United States exported sixty millions pounds of cheese ; Canada 

 but six millions. In 1880 the United States exported one hun- 

 dred and twenty-seven and one-half millions of pounds, Can- 

 ada forty millions. In 1890 the United States exported ninety- 

 five millions of pounds while Canada exported ninety-four 

 millions, practically the same from each source. In 1895 the 

 exports of cheese from the United States had dropped to sixty 

 and one-half millions of pounds, while Canada exported one 

 hundred and forty-six millions of pounds of cheese. In 1898 

 the United States exported but forty-six millions of pounds of 

 cheese, dropping from one hundred and twenty-seven and one- 

 half millions in 1880 to forty-six milions of pounds in 1898. 

 Our exports for 1898 were one hundred and fifty millions of 

 pounds, and for 1899 they will be larger still; and too the 

 prices being much higher in 1899 than in 1898, our people re- 

 ceived in the neighborhood of $18,000,000. 



I hope you will not think I am vain in making these com- 

 parisons. I wish to draw your attention to the fact that since 

 1870 the exports of cheese from the United States have been 

 gradually decreasing and the exports from Canada gradually 

 increasing, and the question arises, why is this thusly? You 

 can, for yourselves, answer this better than I can. Looking 

 at it as a neighbor I would say there are two main reasons 

 why your exports have dropped off. You have had a rapidly 

 increasing demand at home which has consumed your manu- 

 factured cheese to a large extent. But the main reason your 

 exports have dropped off is that you have been making two 

 classes of inferior cheese. I cannot say whether this is true 

 of Vermont or not, but it is true of the United States. You 

 have made two classes of cheese which has injured your repu- 

 tation in the British markets. You make a skimmed milk 

 cheese and a filled cheese. The Englishman is particular 

 what he eats, and if he gets the idea that the food products 



