74 



THE LANCASTER PARMER. 



[May, 



and similar roots, and must be left to the pro- 

 fessional liybridizer, who is generally well 

 known to the seed trade, and who can dispose 

 to advantage anything new that is an im- 

 provement over old varieties ; the common 

 farmer very likely would not be able to dis- 

 pose seeds of such improved varieties at a 

 higher price than the regular price ruling, and 

 thus would have only the pleai^ure nf knowing 

 tliat he has done some good and be out of 

 pocket by the operation, tor it takes time and 

 money to raise improved varieties, by crosses 

 of the crops last mentioned. 



The jiroper sphere of the regular farmer is 

 to get the best variety he can find, and then 

 keep it up or improve it by selection. — A. B. K. 



THE DAIRY SITUATION. 



Importance and Rapid Development of Dairy- 

 ing in America— Danger Ahead — Over-pro- 

 duction Possible Only from Making Poor 

 Cheese, Poor Butter, and Then Certain Ad- 

 vice to Milk Producers and Dairy Butter 

 Makers, Which, if Heeded, Great Loss Will 

 be Saved This Year — Importance of Market- 

 ing Goods While Fresh — Encourage Home 

 Consumption and Sale at Home Whenever 

 Possible, Etc. 



BY .1. n. REALL, OF PniLADELPHIA. 



The dairy industry is now commanding a 

 degree of attention commensurate with its 

 importance, from both consumers and pro- 

 ducers. The superior merits of American 

 cheese and butter, and the prolitableness of 

 their production, where given especial atten- 

 tion, have set all interested in the subject to 

 thinking, while commerce begins to recognize 

 their value to the trade of the country, the 

 magnitude of which few realize. And yet the 

 most intelligent observers, and those best in- 

 formed on the suljject, regard the development 

 of the dairy industry as but yet in its infancy. 

 A careful consideration of the question, in all 

 its relations, will lead any one to the same 

 conclusion. In less than thirty years the fac- 

 tory system of cheese making has grown from 

 one establishment to three thousand. In that 

 brief period the production has grown from 

 25,000,000 lbs. per annum to over ;iOO,000,000 

 pounds, and the exports have increased pro- 

 portionately. Instead of a decline in prices, 

 an advance of nearly one hundred per cent. 

 has resulted, and they are now relatively 

 higher than ever before. Ten years ago there 

 were no cheese factories west of Central New 

 York, except on the Western Beserve in 

 Ohio. Now a large district in the compara- 

 tively new territory of Western New York 

 contains hundreds of factories, one firm 

 managing over forty. Northwestern Ohio has 

 a number. Southern Michigan is blessed with 

 a score. Indiana has a baker's dozen. Nortli- 

 ern Illinois abounds in them. Wisconsin 

 boasts her hundreds, which turn out an arti- 

 cle that almost makes good, old New York 

 State blush for her laurels. Infant Iowa con- 

 tains a score, producing a fine article. Mis- 

 souri has built a number, and Kansas, not to 

 be outdone, makes cheese for New York and 

 Europe. California vies with all and produces 

 an article which commands twenty cents per 

 pound at home, and recently I received a let- 

 ter from a friend who had sought new fields 

 for his enterprise as a cheese manufacturer in 

 far-off Australia. The idea so generally en- 

 tertained, and which I was once committed 

 to, that the territory adapted to dairying was 

 confined within certain narrow geographical 

 limits, is most erroneous. Our western friends 

 have disproved it, as they have many other 

 fallacies, by their greater enterprise, and I 

 may say skill. True, if certain mountain 

 grasses and mountain streartis and peculiar 

 climate were requisite, the limits would be 

 prescribed, but the west has shown us through 

 a superior product of butter that her prairie 

 grasses, cheap corn and oats, and the adapta- 

 tion of windmill power to underground 

 springs, produces both quality and quantity. 

 She has shown a pecuniary profit to her milk 

 producers that our eastern dairymen never 

 ^reamed of. The practical intelligence of her 



jieople is revolutionizing the dairy business. 

 Instead of waiting for the opening of spring 

 to supply feed for their cows, and with heart 

 burnings allowing the hoary frosts of autumn 

 to dictate a stoppage of their grateful duty, 

 after the manner of the east, they respect no 

 season more than an other, unless it be the 

 very one which the eastern dairymen derives 

 no benefit from. To the Illinois dairymen the 

 cow is a never-failing spring. I have seen 

 cheese factories in that State in which the 

 cheese vat has not seen a holiday for three 

 years. 



The low price of corn, oats and pork this 

 season has proven very discouraging to the 

 great body of farmers in the west. This, to- 

 gether with the great prosperity of their 

 neighbors in the dairying business, is leading 

 to a change from grain production, in whole 

 or part, to dairying, and I am free to encourage 

 it. Hundreds of new factories will be started 

 this season, and I hope the suffering farmers 

 of all sections will take advantage of an in- 

 dustry that contains less drudgery, produces 

 greater profit and enriches the land. The 

 change will benefit those who make it, and 

 leave a better chance of profit to those who 

 continue general farming. As I have already 

 indicated, if we give the people fine cheese 

 they will cat all tliey can make, because it is 

 cheaper, better, and more wholesome than 

 meat. True, the home demand has not in- 

 creased proportionately with that from abroad, 

 but the necessities of the case are compelling 

 greater attention to that outlet, and I believe 

 it within the range of possibilities to make 

 such a demand for cheese at home, while pay- 

 ing strict attention to the foreign trade, that 

 will enable a double production over the 

 present. 



There is no question about a demand for 

 fine butter. Even at 38 and 40 cents per pound 

 at homo, manufacturers were unable to sup- 

 ply the demand for fine creamery. The export 

 outlet for this kind of butter is upon the in- 

 crease, and at reasonable prices I do not believe 

 can be over-sup))lied. The most intelligent re- 

 ceivers of butter ia the east agree in this view. 



Though creamery butter is doing so well, 

 inferiorqualities of dairy made are a drug at 

 less than one-quarter the price, and millions 

 of pounds of this class now lie in the cellars 

 of the east, unsaleable above prices for sheep 

 grease. A few years ago much of this butter 

 would liave been accepted as good enough for 

 table butter. This shows a very great change 

 in the public taste. Hundreds of thousands 

 of dollars were lost to dealers and producers 

 last year, from the production of inferior but- 

 ter. The lesson to the dealers has been so 

 severe that I apprehend none will be found 

 unwise enough to buy inferior qualities of 

 butter this year, except at prices that will not 

 pay for the labor of churning it. even if done 

 by the small boy. If the farmer cannot make 

 good butter and cannot sell his milk, he had 

 better feed it to his hogs than to make it into 

 poor butter. The dealer would much rather 

 pay a good price for fine butter than purchase 

 common stuff at any figure. 



An important point for all to consider is 

 the necessity for marketing butter while fresh. 

 Both producer and shipper must pursue this 

 plan hereafter to avoid loss. Stale butter is 

 a thing of the past, so far as its consumption 

 is concerned. The people wont eat it. and 

 therefore it is folly to have it. Thousands of 

 packages of the stock now on hand would 

 have l)rought fair prices if it had been .sold 

 when fresh. 



The creamery system of making butter is 

 coinpelliug attention everywhere. Its advan- 

 tages are many and varied. The product com- 

 mands upon the average over one hundred 

 per cent, more than that of the private dairy, 

 and twenty-five to fifty per cent, more than 

 selected dairy. It saves labor to the farmer's 

 wife and waste of material. The strongest 

 point in its favor I can give is from the si)eech 

 of Dr. Cummings, at the Manchester, Iowa, 

 Dairymen's Convention. He said he was real- 

 izing 40 cents per pound for the butter pro- 

 duct of his cows, by having his milk manu- 



factured at the creamery. The butter used 

 in his family he bought from his neighbors, at 

 14 cents per pound, realizing a clean profit of 

 twenty to twenty-five cents on every pound by 

 the operation. 



The system of making butter must become 

 more general, and in every neighborhood 

 where even one or two hundred cows are kept J 

 within a radius of three or four miles, a fl 

 small creamery or cheese factory should be 

 built. The larger the number of cows the 

 better, and the cheaper the manufacturing 

 can be done, but however small the number j 

 the adoption of this plan will in most sections 

 increase the returns to the producer fully one 

 hundred per cent. 



As the dairy industry extends the tendency 

 will be to curtail the cultivation of corn, 

 thereby decreasing the supply and advancing 

 the price, and for this there seems an actual 

 necessity from this season's experience. The 

 price of pork, which up to this year has 

 favored the producer, but is now against him, 

 would advance sufficiently to make its pro- 

 duction remunerative; and with other causes 

 I shall mention, would make it more profitable 

 to feed skimmed milk than to manufacture it 

 into cheeSe. In short, I believe the extension 

 of the dairy industry and this pa/ticular 

 branch, will prove beneficial to every agricul- 

 tural interest as well as to those directly con- 

 cerned. 



There is, however, serious danger of ruin to 

 the whole e]iterprise, and it is my duty to 

 point out the rock, which, if not avoided, will 

 shatter the entire dairy structure, and that 

 very soon. It is the production of an inferior 

 article of either cheese or butter. The large 

 increase, which is absolutely certain this year 

 in both articles, will make poor qualities value- 

 less, and scale down the price of fine goods. 

 It is, therefore, the direct personal interest of 

 every dairyman and of every manufacturer to 

 discourage the production of any but the best 

 cheese and the best butter. This fact cannot 

 be too strongly emphasized. I foresee the 

 most disastrous results from indifference to 

 the dangers I am pointing out. This year will 

 either witness a check to dairying, from which 

 it will take years to recover, or a forward 

 movement that will eclipse its brilliant record 

 of the past. Which it shall be, rests with the 

 producer and manufacturer to decide by the 

 course they pursue. If the manufacture of 

 skimmed and inferior cheese continues ruin 

 will follow. If poor butter is still made where 

 good might be, all will sufter, but the chief 

 danger is in the cheese department, as it has 

 not suffered to the extent that butter has. 

 The present almost valuelessness of inferior 

 butter will decrease its production materially 

 the present year, while a fine article is apt to 

 be made at the expense of our cheese. The 

 latter, therefore, is in the greatest danger. 

 The milk producer is the one who will solve 

 this question of rise and firll. It is out of the 

 manufacturer's hands. He is but the instru- 

 ment of the dairymen, whose greed and short- 

 sightedness has caused the markets to be 

 flooded with skimmed and half skimmed 

 cheese, and improperly manufactured full 

 creams. First, through a desire to get more 

 than the value of his milk ; second, by refus- 

 ing to pay the worth of skilled labor, and the 

 use of unfit ingredients ; third, by the supply 

 of impure or damaged milk. And he will suffer 

 the consequence of continuing all or either 

 of these practices. In pointing to the cause 

 of danger I have indicated the course that 

 must be adopted for their avoidance, but I 

 will be specific. First. Greater attention must 

 be given to the production of pure, rich milk. 

 To this end proper kinds of cows, proper feed 

 for them and their proper care are necessary. 

 The milk must then be properly taken care of 

 to keep it sweet and pure until it reaches the 

 factory or creamery. Then the intelligence 

 and enterprise that has produced the proper 

 kind of milk will have provided a suitable 

 place for its manufacture and a skilled work- 

 man to convert it into cheese or butter. Self- 

 interest should result in its manufacture into 

 one article or the other exclusively. The at-- 



