298 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



April 11, 1828. 



production of good cheese, may be ascribed more the slopes ind ;.,»rges of the Alleghanies covered men, who consl.intly alien II, c iJiij-hlon fairs, 

 to the want of knowledge in the process than to with dairy farnia ? And would not such a meas- and whose veracity they will not question, could 

 soil and climate — that a complete knowledge rests ure " provide fur the common defence, promote the , inform iheui that the farmers Ihroug^houl New Eng- 



On chemical nicelii-s which are not practised — or 

 the making it systemalically depends on the unerr- 

 ing rules of science, in which the conductors of 

 dairies are not versed. The dairy woman having 

 brought her cheese, by guessing, to such perfec- 

 tion as to reach the point to command a ready 

 sale, at a satisfactory price, for the " hume mar- 

 ket," keeps her secret .ind gutsscs no farther. 



It is the opinion of numbers of such men as I 

 have named, who attend the Brighton fairs, that 

 the surest machine in New England for transmu 

 ting herb:ige into money, is a dairy, when chi'ese 

 will bring six cents a pound at the door ; and I 

 belipve the same may be said of all well-niannged 

 dairies throughout the whole hill country/, as fur 

 south as the cotton latitude. But we cannot well 

 have stronger proof than that dairy firniers are 

 more flourishing than any others ; indeed, they 

 appear to bo the only class that are growing rich, 

 except the growers of fine wool that manage pru- 

 aently. 



Such has been the increase of population, and 

 the e.xtension of new settlements where dairies do 

 not flourish, that the supply ot cheese hns seldom 

 exceeded the consumption. Sometimes, however, 

 it does, and then it perishes in the warehouses of 



general welfare, and regulate commerce with for- land were striving, with all their might, long be- 

 eign nations." (ihe only ^' pegs" in the constitu- fore the fall of wool, or the importations referred 

 tion the " prote.iing system" can hang upon,) full to by them, to get rid of their native coarse wool- 

 aa well as a proliibitoiy taiiff ? It is said Great led sheep, and to substitute those that produce 

 Britain will take nothing of us but cotton ; — she fine. " Excellence is of slow growth;" time is re- 

 would be glad to take our cheese if it was equal quired to change the flocks of a country. It has 

 to her own, vvhi- i sel s on the spot at eighteen or been esliinatcd by competent judges, that within 

 twenty cents a p'vind. Our merchants could not the last four or five years, half a million of native 

 make a better ri^mittance for " coarse ii'09?/c>i*," sheep and lambs have been .«old at Brighton, and 

 than to purchase such cheese for fitleen cents. |a great portion of those that came in autumn and 



Great Britain draws large supplies of butter and the early pari of winter, at prices little above the 

 cheese from Holland ; she has no land to spare 'value of Ihe'ir ptlls. It is an unquestionable fact, 

 ♦or a corresponding increase of the dairy wilhi that a drover has been known to start from Ver- 

 her population. .She is so much attached to home raont for Brighton with a flock of native sheep and 

 consumption, that double the number of /lorses are a drove of swine — ind to slaughter the sheep to 

 kept for ngriculti.re that are necessary — those and fatten his hogs on the road, throwing their pells 

 her cum laus eat up every thi; g. She even im 'into a wagon, to sell on his arrival, 

 ports large quantities of eggs and poultry from I have made inquiries of numbers of wool grow- 

 France. Yet in what country do yeomanry ' land- ers, as to the relative profit of growing fine wool 

 /orrfs and <cnan<s complain more ? or coarse ; none fix the difference at less than 



The tariff intended for the protection of other three pounds of fine foi two of coarse at the same 

 products of the soil, except those which will be no- expense. I am aware that difference in focks and 

 ticed in the sequel, mav be ranked with cheese, their location, may cause some variation, i place 

 Ten cents a bushel on potatoes is mere sound ; gre;\t reliance, however, on the information of a 



they are a bulky, perishable article. A few far- gentleman of science and observation, who has 

 mers in the vicinity of the eastern and northernf.bcon a wool grower for twenty years past, and, 

 the sea ports, its you informed your readers was I sea ports may, in so;rie seasons, be benefitted. — moreover, is interested in wocdlen manufactures, 

 the case last year in Philadelphi i — the blessed ef- j But it will come out of the pockets of those of the that he could raise t »o pounds of fine meiino at 

 facts of a "/i07ne maj-A'((." As for the exportation south, who are obliged to purchase their seed less expense tiian one pound of native coarse wool I 

 of good rich American cheese, it is out of the j every year. With such data, ^g'urfs will demonstrate that, un- 



question. But little of it will keep at home after 

 the first year. Some skim-milk cheese is export- 

 ed, to which I have no referonce ; for it has been 

 satisfactorily ascertained, that the dairy woman 

 who robs her cheese of the n-eani, robs her hus- 

 band's pocket : as the loss in the quantity of curd, 

 and of course weight, with the difffrence of price, 

 is considerably more, than the value of the butter. 

 There are often a few days in a season, however, 

 when it is found, from the state of the weather, 

 profitable to make skira milk cheese. There have 

 been a few instances of gocd American cbeese 

 keeping sound to Ca\cutta,lhatwas sold at twenty- 

 five cents a pound, when English cheese, stored 

 in the same warehouse, sold at fifty cents. But 

 no prudent merchant will ship rich new milk 

 cheese to warm climates. Whereas if it was made 

 to imitate English or Dutch cheese, in quality and 

 keeping properties, scarcely a ship bound to the 

 East and West Indies or South America,but would 

 have her cargo assorted with considerable invest- 

 ments, even at fifty per cent, above the present 

 price. But the dairy farmers have had a " /lome 

 market." They saw no foreign cheese and natu- 

 rally supposing the tariff protected them, had no 

 inducement to imitate it : as they were selling at 

 their own doors at seven or eight cents a pound, 

 they were satisfied — not being like some of their 

 fellow citizens engaged in other pursuits, "never 

 content but with a Utile more." 



Now let us suppose that Congress, instead of 

 granting a prohibitory tariff, had offered a bounty 

 on the importation of forcijn cheese,(which I con- 

 tend, they had an equal riirhtto do,) for the pur- 

 pose of stimulating the farmers to enter into com- 

 petition with it, that they might bring tho manu- 

 facture to such perfection as to compete in all 

 foreign markets — and no doubt they can — there- 

 by creating a very important staple of export. Is 

 it not probable you might, by this time, have seen 



The report of the committee on manufactures, til coarse wool bears a price vastly higher than 

 and the bill presented by them to the House of fine, it is in vain to think of obtaining a supply, 

 Representatives, providing for an increased tarilf except by importation. It must appear evident, 

 on wool, woollens, hemp. &c., having just come to that a tariff that would induce our farmers to grow 

 hand, we proceed to examine the protection held coarse wool, would shut the gates of every woollen 

 out to agriculture. The first in order are wool manufactory adapted to that description of materi- 

 and woollen manufactures. I must here express al, ir the country. There are facts from ofiicial 

 my astonishment at the « -int of information mani- sources now before the public, which prove that 

 fested by the attendants on the "^Jro^cch'ng- sjysfeni" the inportation of wool, of all qualities, has not 

 at liarrishurg, and of those now in attendance at exceeded five per cent, on the quantity grown in 

 Washington, of what pertains to the farming in- the country ; and there is the stronijest presump- 

 lerest. Indeed, I cannot furnish a more forcible lion that the protluction of fine wool hfs nearly 

 illustration, than to transcribe a story told of the reached the point of demand by the manufacturers, 

 niitives of Chili, by the celebrated Zimmerman, One of the most extensive wool growers in the 

 which I found quoted in a recent British publica- union, expressed to me a few days since, an opin- 

 tion now on my table : " In Chili," says Zimmer- ion decidedly confirmatory — concluding with this 

 man, " the physicians blow around the beds of remark, " we oyily want to be ht alone." The in- 

 thcir patients to drive away diseases, and as the formation I have been able to collect from various 

 people of that country believe that physic consists ! sources, justifies the conclusion, that the period is 

 wholly of this wind, their doctors would take it 1 at hand, when the staple of our fine wool will be 

 very ill of any person who should attempt to make ; so much improved as to becoine an article of ex- 

 the method of cure more difficult. They think port. The dissemination of considerable flocks of 

 they know enoussk -when Ihcji knoic hoto to hlotv." If Saxon sheep, has caused a spirited and healthy 

 the farmers can bo induced to consider the tariff competition, that will, if not paralyzed by tariffs, 

 on wool and woollens any protection, it may, with be productive of such results, when the art of 

 truth he said, that " credidity is indigenous" in stap/iiig' is better understood, as to compete with 

 other climates besides Chili. • the wools of Spain, and even Saxony, in the Brit- 



The committee state in their report, that " the isli markets. 

 very rapid increase in the importation of low If I have been so fortunate as to convince you 

 qualities of wool since the tariff of 1824, furnishes j that a tariff on wool will not benefit the " farming 

 the strongest reasons to conclude that they or^* ' interest," it will not be necessary to shew that 

 supplying the demands and answering the use oi t'e enormous one already existing, and the in- 

 vvhicli the coarse wool of our country would, in jcrenso now contemplated, on coarse xpoollens, will 

 most cases, supply." Without stopping to inquire j be alike inoperative. Bullet us look on the other 

 whether this conclusion is not founded upon isoln- side of the wall. Will any one contend that this 

 lated facts, or whether the real cause of these im- protecting tariff will not operate, in every section 

 portations is not physical; nnmely : that such of our country, as a most grievous burden — a tar, 

 qualities cannot, and never will be, found in our and nothing hut an unequal tar on the many for 

 country; I would respectfully intimate to the hon- the benefit of the few.' And will not the agricul- 

 ourable coramittoc, that numbers of intelligent I turists feel it most sensibly — do they not at this 



