SKETCH OF MODERN AGRICULTURE 



that they began to be appreciated, their special fitness for range 

 conditions giving them a high value. 



Dairying. Up to 1850 the butter and cheese made in this 

 country was made on farms, but in the next year the associated 

 system of dairying, known for a long time as the American 

 system, was inaugurated. This so-called American system was 

 similar to the modern cheese factory, to which farmers over a 

 considerable area brought their milk and had it made into 

 cheese. 1 By 1861 twenty-one cheese factories had been built. 

 This was the beginning of a revolution in dairying which was 

 carried much further during the subsequent period by the de- 

 velopment of cooperative and capitalistic creameries. 



The census of 1840 was the first to compile statistics of 

 agriculture. Consequently we have very little complete or ac- 

 curate knowledge of the agricultural production of the United 

 States prior to that date. The following table shows the ag- 

 ricultural expansion from 1840 to 1860, the principal products 

 being given in millions : 1 



1 Cf. Bogart, Economic History of the United States, pp. 243, 244. 



