1890.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 201 



grasses, with cows fresh in spring-time, ten pounds of milk 

 will be required for one of cheese weighed from the press ; 

 while in autumn, with the richer milk peculiar to that sea- 

 son, and accounted for in part by the character of the food 

 furnished, and further by the remoteness of the cows from 

 time of coming fresh in milk, eight pounds of milk only is 

 required for a pound of cheese, and in some cases the record 

 has been made of a pound of cheese from only seven of milk. 

 Nine pounds of milk from the common cows of the country, 

 on the average, running six months of the year, will make a 

 pound of green cheese. This shrinks from three to six per 

 cent in curing, according to age when sold. 



It may not be worth w^hile to refer to the price of this 

 product on the market, when all know that in the past, in 

 common with all other commodities, its value has fluctuated 

 somewhat. Any attempt, therefore, to name it for the 

 future, would carry no certain reliance. It is, however, a 

 law that has held good in the past, that no important com- 

 modity has long remained below cost of production ; so we 

 may reason that cheese will sell for a reasonable price. In 

 view of the present indifference to this particular business 

 throughout New England, the time when it can be feared 

 that it will be overdone must be a long way in the future. 

 The price for some years past has been called low ; yet good 

 cheese, — and intelligent Yankees are not excusable for mak- 

 ing any other, — well sold, has averaged in Maine full twelve 

 cents a pound. If a lower average must apply to Massachu- 

 setts, it must be because it was sold on the wholesale market, 

 or was an inferior article. Here in Massachusetts, close as 

 you are to a large population of consumers dependent almost 

 entirely on other States for the product, and where there is 

 no reason for going into the wdiolesale market, the price 

 named is entirely safe to base calculations for the future 

 upon. The price will go above that figure oftener than it 

 will fall below. In Maine we have factories that never any 

 year have sold below twelve cents, their product all going 

 to the local trade or to consumers in the vicinity. With 

 respect to market, we and you have an advantage in selling, 

 with this commodity the same as with butter, only that it has 

 not been worked to such an extent. 



