24 



Our Imports of Dairy Produce. 



ended June, 1896, they amounted to only 34 million 

 pounds. In 1890 it was estimated that about 50 per cent, of 

 the cheese manufactured in the United States was produced 

 in the State of New York, and that is probably the propor- 

 tion at the present time. The magnitude which the industry 

 has attained in New York is explained by the fact that it was 

 in this State that the factory system of cheese-making was 

 iirst introduced, and it is here that it has found its greatest 

 development. According to an enumeration made by the 

 Commissioner of Agriculture, there were 1,032 cheese 

 factories and 311 creameries in existence in the State in 

 1894. The factories vary in size : an average establishment 

 produces from eight to ten cheeses a day, but some make 

 only five or six cheeses daily, and others make as many as 

 twenty-two a day in the height of the season. The milk is 

 usually drawn from farms within a radius of between two 

 and three miles from the factories. The latter are sometimes 

 owned by single proprietors, but the greater number are 

 joint-stock concerns. In either case the system of manage- 

 ment is the same : the farmers supplying the milk are 

 credited with the total weight of milk supplied, which is 

 paid for according to the quantity required to make one lb. 

 of cheese, on the basis of the selling price per pound of the 

 manufactured article. Few factories have adopted the 

 method of paying on the basis of the fat contents of the 

 milk. The manufacturing season extends as a rule from 

 April to November. 



The total quantity of butter exported from the United 

 States was nearly 12 million pounds in 1894 ; in the following 

 year it had decreased to 5,600,000 lbs., and in 1896 it 

 amounted to 19,400,000 lbs. About 85 per cent, of the butter 

 produced in the country is made on farms, although in the 

 eastern States there is a considerable number of creameries 

 and factories. The estimated number of cows in the United 

 states in 1 896 was 1 6, 1 38,000, or 226 per i ,000 of the population. 



The United States has for many years furnished the 

 bulk of the oleo oil, neutral lard, and cottonseed oil for the 

 European marg'arine industry, but manufactured marg'arine is 

 not exported in any quantity from America. 



