162 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



our markets for dairy products, at home and, abroad, some 

 of the ground ah-eady traversed must be gone over again, 

 but briefly. 



The business side of our dair}' interests requires the 

 attention of merchants as well as of farmers and creamery- 

 men. The demoralization of the cheese trade has been 

 explained. To re-establish confidence and encourage gen- 

 eral consumption, which has been decreased in marked 

 degree, will require systematic eflbrt. The place of cheese 

 as an economical article of food, rather than as a condiment, 

 must be brought l^efore the people. It is a cheap and satis- 

 ftictory substitute, in part, for expensive meats. Difterences 

 in variety of cheese, in flavor and in style of package, must 

 be used to best advantage to stimulate sales. Retail mer- 

 chants must be content w itli the reasonable profits usual on 

 other semi-perishable food products, instead of the sixty, 

 eighty and even one hundred per cent advance on cost price, 

 which is so commonly placed on cheese. If local dealers 

 maintain the exorbitant prices which repel consumers, 

 factories should work up a trade by sending delivery wagons 

 through their neighborhoods with cheese in small, attractive 

 shapes for family use. This has been successfully done in 

 numerous places, the factory netting a cent or two more 

 than wholesale rates, and consumers being supplied at prices 

 much below their local markets. 



It is unfortunate that cheese factories have been so gen- 

 erally closed, and the manufacture discontinued over large 

 areas. In every New England State the production of 

 cheese has steadily decreased for thirty or forty years. 

 While the price of butter was proportionately high, the 

 tendency to make more butter and less cheese was natural. 

 But, now that the present and prospective price of butter is 

 low and that of cheese high in proportion, there should be a 

 revival of this branch of dairying, providing the demand for 

 cheese continues to improve. It would be expedient to have 

 one creamery fitted to make cheese in every active creamery 

 district, and prepared to shift its product from butter to 

 cheese at any time that an excessive receipt of milk or an 

 extremely low price for butter makes it desirable. 



The occurrence of a surplus in dairy products of any 



