DAIRY FARMS. 19 



ize whatever differences he might be obHged to meet. 

 For instance, the cheaper lands, which are at a distance 

 from the best markets, must be adapted to pasture, and 

 the heavier clay soils of a somewhat moist character are 

 preferable. Even a poorer class of soils, if they are 

 adapted for grass and are cheap enough, may answer 

 very well for dairy purposes; because it is the low cost of 

 the product in localities which are distant from markets 

 which enables dairymen to compete favorably with others 

 whose land, nearer to markets, is more costly. Cheap 

 land is a great advantage in dairying, for butter and 

 cheese are concentrated products, and the cost of trans- 

 portation is light. It was the cheap lands of the West 

 which changed the center of the dairy business from 

 Western New York to Wisconsin and Iowa ; for they 

 attracted the best and most enterprising farmers, who 

 removed thither, tempted by this advantage of cheap soil, 

 and there, adopting the best methods of practice, quickly 

 lifted from Western dairy products the stigma of their 

 previous low quality, and raised them to the highest 

 point of value in the Eastern markets by the force of their 

 high excellence. It is this, too, which is constantly 

 moving the center of the business to the West, and will 

 soon bring the cheap and rich lands of the South into 

 competition with the Eastern districts. 



But while this is true, the system of soiling and 

 high culture of the land enables the owners of higher 

 priced farms in the more thickly populated East to carry 

 on the business profitably, by producing goods of fine 

 quality, and supplying the best classes of consumers and 

 the dealers in fine groceries with small quantities in a 

 perfectly fresh condition, and by catering to the special 

 wants of these purchasers, who desire their butter and 

 cheese put up in attractive forms. For this purpose the 

 kind of soil is of little account, as this class of dairymen 

 are skillful farmers, who generally own fine stock, and 



