138 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



years and in Iowa eight years, and were increasing in those 

 States. New England butter-makers I^new something was 

 the matter^ but were groping about to find what had hit 

 them. Within a year, however, the advantages of the 

 creamery system and its adaptation to eastern wants, as set 

 forth at the hist Greentiekl meeting of this Board, began to 

 be appreciated, and the author of that paper succeeded in 

 persuading a few enterprising farmers to organize in the 

 neighboring town of Hattield (1880) the lirst co-operative 

 creamery or butter factory established in New England. In 

 fact, the whole creamery movement in New England may be 

 fairly said to date from that meeting here, in 1879. 



Prior to 1880 our entire southern country and all territory 

 west of the Missouri River was mainly supplied with butter 

 and cheese from the eastern, middle and a few north-western 

 States, the local dairy production being insignificant. The 

 home supply of first-class butter was insufiicient, and no 

 accumulations of good grades for any length of time could 

 be found in American markets. The country was then pro- 

 ducing a surplus of cheese, its average quality was high and 

 its foreign reputation of the best. The foremost authority 

 of the United Kingdom wrote in 1878, after the British dairy 

 show in London: "A few years ago no one thought for a 

 moment that we (in Great Britain) had anything to fear 

 from the quality, whatever we might have from the volume, 

 of American competition in cheese ; but now we are beaten 

 all along the line." 



We were at that time exporting about one hundred and 

 fifteen million pounds of cheese annually, nearly all of it 

 going to England. Ten years before, during the period of 

 reciprocal trade relations with Canada, we had found a good 

 market there, and sent millions of pounds of cheese across the 

 St. Lawrence annually, to be consumed by the Canadians. 

 In 1879 the repeal of the treaty had cut oft' that market, and 

 the Canadians were not only making their own cheese, but 

 beginning to export some ; this trade did not then, however, 

 interfere with that from the United States. 



Fifteen to twenty years ago farmers were often advised to 

 examine their cows, keep records of individual performance 

 and weed out their herds. But daily weighing of the milk 



