61 



herds and large dairies. In Lake Valley, on the 

 shores of Lake Tahoe-one of the loveliest spots 

 to be found in the Sierras there are no less thau 

 thirteen dairies of 150 cows each, on a tract eight 

 miles wide by ttt'teen long. Here butter is made 

 which commands a ready sale in Carson and Vir- 

 ginia City at 50 cents and upward per pound. 

 The Mormons are developing the business at 

 Utah, and already they have factories and co- 

 operative dairies. Then in California, as you 

 know, all along the coast range, dairies have 

 been planted. Even so long ago as 1870, I found 

 here the largest dairy farm I had ever seen the 

 dairy ranch of the Shatter Brothers, embracing 

 75,000 acres, and having over 400 miles of fenc- 

 ing. There was upon it 3,000 cows in milk, and I 

 rode more than TOO miles on private roads as 

 smooth and as free from ruts as any in the old 

 dairy districts of New York. This ranch has 

 since that time been divided into three 25,000 

 acre dairy farms, each of which in turn is por- 

 tioned out into dairies numbering 150 cows and 

 where the choicest butter is made for the Cali- 

 fornia market. The climate here is admirably 

 adapted to butter making, the temperature, 

 winter aud summer, never varying much from 

 60 degrees Fahrenheit. 



The annual cheese product of the United States 

 now averages a little under 300.000.000 pounds, of 

 which we export nearly 100,000,000 pounds 92,- 

 000,950 pounds in 1875. The receipts in New York 

 during 1875 were 2,322.015 boxes, against 2,046,575 

 boxes in 1874 and 2,007,633 boxes in 1873. In round 

 numbers the receipts in New York during 1875 

 were about 130,000,000 pounds. The exports of 

 butter from New York in 1875 were only 4,226,976 

 pounds. 



MARKETING. 



One great feature belonging to the dairy, and 

 which gives dairymen an immense advantage 

 over other farmers is, an organized system of 

 marketing. The system was commenced at Lit- 

 tle Falls, N. Y., in 1860-1 buyers and sellers 

 meeting on certain days of the week in the open 

 street to make transactions; for the business 

 was then transacted in the open air by the side 

 of the wagons. Attempts have been made by 

 certain parties to falsity the truth of history by 

 representing that the tirst efforts to establish 

 " sale days,'* or a country cheese market was 

 made at Utica in 1870. There is scarcely a dairy- 

 man in Central New York but is familiar with 

 the fact that Little Falls had a regular weekly 

 dairy market 10 years prior to 1871, when millions 

 of pounds of cheese were sold annually, and that 

 there were no regular sales days at Utica until 

 1871. On some market days at Little Falls pre- 

 vious to 1864 several hundred farmers have been 

 in the streets near the railway depot, each with 

 bis wagon loaded with cheese, boxed and marked 

 with his name, while some twenty or more buy- 

 ers were scattered among them and passing 

 from wagon to wagon some from New York, 

 Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore and other cities 

 with an occasional shipper from England could 

 be seen examining boxing, tasting, smelling and 

 making bids lor the loads. In 1864, the first 

 weekly reports of the Little Falls market, then 

 and now the largest interior dairy market in the 

 world, began to be made. Previous to 1864 farm- 

 ers relied on city quotations, which were some- 

 times thought to be in the merchant's favor. 

 But it was not until the early part of 1871 that a 

 Dairy Board of Trade was organized, though the 

 project was agitated in 1869 by residents of Lit- 

 tle Falls. Here, as in the origin of the dairy 

 movement, Herkimer county took the initiative, 

 establishing a Da ryman's Board of Trade, under 

 the general name of the "New York State Dairy- 

 men's Association and Board of Trade." Soon 

 after publishing an.i sending out circulars giving 

 the plan of the organization and the rules by 

 which it was to be governed, the dairymen of 



Oneida took copy and also established a "Dairy- 

 men's Board of Trade" at Utica. The plan 

 spread to other sections and now many dairy 

 centres in New York and in other states have 

 their Dairy Boards of Trade at which merchants 

 and sellers meet on regular market days for the 

 transaction of business in dairy goods. The 

 telegraph is here brought into requisition, and 

 sellers go upon the market knowing something 

 of the demand and the price on both sides of the 

 Atlantic. At the interior markets competition 

 often runs high, and merchants somptimes com- 

 plain that margins are narrow, and money not 

 so easily made as when the goods were bought 

 at the factory on city quotations. Be this as it 

 may, the dairymen now have a sort of commer- 

 cial education. They study the markets, home 

 and foreign, and they judge when it is best to 

 realize on their goods. 



SHRINKAGE IN VALUES FOR 1876. 



The shrinkage in values on nearly all kinds of 

 property during 1876 has been very considerable. 

 Real estate has depreciated from 25 to 30 per 

 cent. The fall in cotton goods and some other 

 manufactures has been very great. The value 

 of nearly all our agricultural products are below 

 the range of 1874, and it is not surprising under 

 the pressure of the times, that dairy goods 

 should have been comparatively low. But even 

 under the darkest phase of the times the outlook 

 of dairying is by no means discouraging. Indeed, 

 there is no class of farmers better off to-day 

 than the dairymen. They have sold their goods 

 from month to month and from week to week 

 for cash, and their goods have found a ready 

 market without pushing, while other products 

 have been dull and slow of sale even at greatly 

 reduced rates. The European demand has been 

 fully equal to our surplus, and exports keep 

 values upon a gold basis. It is true prices have 

 been low, but not nearly so low as they were 

 years ago, when dairymen found it not difficult 

 to amass fortunes in the business. 



The one hopeful sign for our increased produc- 

 tion is. that English production is decreasing 

 while the increase of population in our cities 

 and towns calls more and more for additional 

 supplies of fresh milk and an increased quantity 

 of butter and cheese for home consumption. 

 That we are not over-producing is proved by the 

 free disposal of the entire products of the dairy 

 from year to year. Very likely it the make were 

 less, prices would advance, but the values real- 

 ized on account of scarcity press heavily upon 

 the masses, who for the most part find it hard to 

 make the ends meet from year to year. It is 

 better that the people have cheap food with 

 moderate gains to the producer, than that they 

 should suffer tor want of food, that the producer 

 may grow suddenly rich. 



Many dairymen of late years have neglected 

 the economies of dairying, and it is the waste 

 and extravagance that pinches harder than the 

 low prices. He who can cut off waste and be 

 content with moderate gains, will see a silver 

 lining to the cloud, if indeed there be a cloud 

 that dims the future in the far distant horizon. 

 The merchants of the dairy at home and abroad 

 are men who do honor to trade, and among them 

 will be found those who would sooner lop off an 

 arm than stoop to a mean action. The commer- 

 cial integrity of the dairy stands unsullied, and 

 this is an element which helps to place Ameri- 

 can dairying upon a substantial footing. 



