MANUFACTURE OF CHEESE. 383 



If we attempt a comparison between the returns from rearing veal calves, or 

 of cattle up to the age of one and a half or two and a half years, we meet 

 with the same lack of data by means of which to arrive at definite conclusions. 

 It may do no harm, however, to attempt an approximation. From the most 

 careful observations and experiments which have come to my knowledge,, it 

 requires about a gallon of milk for each pound of veal sold from suckled calves 

 from eight to twelve weeks old, and reckoning such carcases to bring five 

 cents per pound, we have a return of five cents for each gallon of milk con- 

 sumed by them. It is difficult to make a satisfactory comparison between the 

 returns yielded by dairy products and those from the sale of calves of one and a 

 half or two and a half years of age. The estimates of farmers of the cost of rear- 

 ing them to these ages vary greatly. I suppose much of the difference depends 

 on the way they set about the reckoning. Let one estimate the food and atten 

 tion given them at what they bring when sold in this form, and it Avould 

 appear that the cost of rearing is not large ; by the same light, however, farm- 

 ing is an unprofitable and undesirable business — plenty of hard work and 

 small pay. Let another charge the milk which the calf takes at 1^ or 2 cents 

 a quart, the hay at SlO a ton, the roots or grain and the pasturage and atten- 

 tion at what they can be made to pay by using them for dairy purposes, and the 

 cost runs up to a sum much larger than the probable price which they will 

 command when brought to market. 



Judging from the best data we have been able to obtain, the opinion is held 

 that the food which will make one pound of meat will usually make at least 

 twenty pounds of milk, and, where really good dairy cows are kept, probably 

 twenty-five pounds. Assuming, then, only twenty pounds of milk to be the 

 equivalent of one pound of meat, we can have, if we choose, in its place, two 

 pounds of cheese. Although the proportion of cheese to be obtained from milk 

 is variable, depending on the amount of butter and casein which the milk con- 

 tains, it may be safely set at as much as one jjound from ten pounds of milk. 

 In one case, I was credibly informed of its having been made from eight and a 

 half pounds ; but nine and a half are usually required with average milk and 

 fair management. So long, therefore, as a pound of cheese commands as much 

 money as a pound of meat, it would seem that we may largely increase the 

 returns from our grazing lands ; or, if we take the usual prices of meat as a 

 basis for our estimate, we may conclude that the actual cost of producing a 

 gallon of milk does not exced five cents ; and if we can, without too large cost 

 for manufacture, convert it into what will bring eight, ten, twelve, or fifteen 

 cents, it must be a profitable operation. It is not supposed that mere economy 

 will ever induce people to restrict their diet to the single article of cheese, how- 

 ever nutritious it may be, and that thus an unbounded demand for it should be 

 created. But the shrewd farmer ever looks closely to the market value of dif- 

 ferent products, and changes his crops as circumstances require. It is perti- 

 nent, therefore, to inquire what is the market for cheese, and where and what 

 it is likely to be in the future, and how soon it may be so supplied that prices 

 shall fall below remuneration. 



The southern half of the United States and the prairie States west make no 

 cheese, never made much, and never will. Formerly a large amount Avent 

 south. Let us hope that in years to come it may require a much larger amount 

 than heretofore. Great as it was, the loss of that outlet did not permanently 

 nor severely depress prices. Since Sumter fell, cheese has advcinced 7-5 to 100 

 per cent., and already is the effect of the progress made in subduing the rebel- 

 lion felt in the demand south. When in theWestern Reserve, in August, 1863, 

 I was informed by a large dealer that the call for cheese from Cincinnati^ 

 Louisville, and other places, to be sent south, was urgent, and so large as to 

 affect prices to some extent. Considerable quantities also go to the West 

 Indies, to South America, and to California. But the principal market abroad 



