COMPETITION OF THE WEST. 125 



ever replace the English Cheshires and Cheddars : the peo- 

 ple must have fresh butter and milk. Alas for human pride 

 and expectation ! The honest English judges at the recent 

 British Dairy Show in London declared, that, " without excep- 

 tion, the American cheese is better than ours ; " and the fore- 

 most authority in the kingdom, in referring to it, wrote, 

 " A few years ago, no one thought for a moment that we had 

 any thing to fear from the quality, whatever we might have 

 from the volume, of American competition in cheese ; but 

 now we are beaten all along the line." 



Still the British dairymen keep up their courage better 

 than their fellow-farmers. Neither American nor Continen- 

 tal butter is up to the English standard ; the milk-trade is 

 improving ; and the shrewdest observers predict that dairying 

 will yet prove to be the sheet-anchor of British agriculture. 



As far as can be seen, the suffering of the farmer-cousins 

 across the water is caused by the competition of cheaper, 

 newer land. Now, just as English agriculture is affected by 

 that of America, so is the farming of New England by that 

 of what we call " the Great West." 



Examine the markets of any of your large towns, and see 

 what you find. The flour is from the wheat of Minnesota 

 and Missouri. You can rarely find New-England corn for 

 sale ; and many of our farmers now depend largely for feed- 

 ing their stock upon the grain of Indiana and Illinois. The 

 beef bred upon the plains of Texas or the parks of Colorado 

 was fatted upon the banks of the Mississippi, and perhaps 

 dressed in Chicago. The pork, hams, lard, are all from the 

 great corn-growing prairie States. Even the mutton is now 

 largely brought from Nebraska, the poultry from Ohio and 

 Michigan. The cheese from Wisconsin is pushing aside, not 

 only our own, but the cheese of New York and Vermont. 

 What can be found produced by the farmers of Massachu- 

 setts ? Butter, vegetables, and fruit; little else compara- 

 tively, and not all of these, by any means. Fruit and 

 vegetables from a distance compete with those raised at 

 home ; and, at any rate, all cannot do truck-farming : we 

 know well enough how easy it is to overdo that business. 

 Butter from far distant Iowa sells for the highest price in 

 quantity in the Boston market, and is received there weekly 

 ton upon ton. Milk must, generally, be produced near the 



