HOW CAN WE COMPETE WITH THE WEST IN DAIRYING. 55 



cient offset to the immediate financial advantage often gained by 

 direct sales to "private customers" and to small markets, is a 

 question I am not able to decide. I am inclined to think, how- 

 ever, that the latter consideration will usually rule. 



(b) Private domestic market. This market does not cut 

 much of a figure in the public eye, it makes but little show 

 in the general returns, yet, as has been already stated, is yearly 

 becoming a more and more important factor in New England 

 dairying. The arguments in favor of this market are obvious, 

 and need not be enlarged upon. A good private trade is very 

 much the best way in which to dispose of dairy products. I 

 should not myself feel inclined to worry about Western competi- 

 tion if I had a good private outlet for my products. The average 

 dairyman and the average creamery, however, are not, as a rule, 

 in a position to avail themselves of this chance, a fact which 

 ought to act as a spur to their energies. 



(c) Foreign markets. American cheese was formerly sold 

 in large quantities in British markets, but the trade has for some 

 time dwindled to relatively small proportions for two reasons : 

 ist. The manufacture and sale of filled cheese, a fraud which 

 fatted a few dishonest pocketbooks and well-nigh ruined a nation's 

 dairy trade. 2nd. The rapid increase in the volume and in the 



'quality of Canadian cheese. The national law controlling the 

 manufacture of filled cheese, as well as state enactments, will 

 probably aid in the partial recovery of the lost ground, yet our 

 former trade can never be regained. More than this, the fraud 

 we perpetrated has reacted upon us and raised a presumption of 

 suspicion in British minds against all our dairy products, a feeling 

 which it is difficult to allay. American butter has been offered 

 in the English market to but a slight extent until recently. That 

 great consuming nation has relied largely on Denmark, Holland 

 and on distant Australia for its supplies. One of the first acts of 

 the present Secretary of Agriculture was to study English mar- 

 ket demands by the shipments of considerable amounts of Amer- 

 ican butter from many sources, thus working up somewhat of a 

 trade. This action has not only acquainted English consumers 

 with the merits of American goods but has served to teach our 

 butter makers the needs of English markets. Great Britain is 

 naturally prepossessed in favor of her own colonies, while the 

 Danish and Dutch butters grade higher on the average 

 than those of any other country (and it may be stated paren- 

 thetically that this is due to the general adoption in these coun- 

 tries of modern methods, cleanliness and particularly of the teach- 

 ings of dairy bacteriology) . This combination is difficult to meet 

 in competition, yet good goods will sell well there. Certain Ver- 

 mont creameries have already established a London trade, which 

 promises to prove remunerative. In 1893 the United States ex- 



