1881 .] 
AMER1GAR AGRICULTURIST. 
39Y 
Improvement has reduced the demand for 
pig meat in the cities more than one half, 
and in the country it has nearly banished 
the pork barrels from farmers’ cellars. Why ? 
Because the American stomach has not kept 
pace with the so-called improvement in the 
feeding and the breeding of pigs. If our 
stomachs could be made to digest lard four 
inches thick, then we might continue this 
improvement, but since they will not, wo 
had better reduce the four inches of fat 
somewhat, and grow meat, instead of lard, 
and try to produce food which will be more 
palatable, digestible, and salable. There 
must be more muscle and less fat, more 
length of body and less cliunkiness. In order 
to produce this condition, there must be more 
exercise and less stuffing. The rich food 
must be kept from the pigs, or fed in very 
moderate quantities, until the “ rounding 
up ” time, just ’ before slaughtering. If in 
good condition they need not be fed more 
than four weeks, during which time they 
may be given as much corn, or other fat¬ 
forming foods as they will eat. The body 
should be made first, and then what fat is 
desired should be added afterwards. This plan 
will make healthy meat, while a system which 
produces a condition of over-fatness, kept 
up for months, does not make healthy food. 
There is too much fever to be healthy, which 
is proved by the fact that the pigs often be¬ 
come foundered and helpless, and are speed¬ 
ily slaughtered before they run down in con¬ 
dition. Pigs should be put into a pasture 
with their mothers, and when they require 
more food than the mothers can furnish 
them to keep them growing, they should be 
taught, which is very little trouble, to go into 
an enclosure by themselves, where they can 
be fed and return again to the mothers at 
will. Our swine lain in the orchard, which 
is the most natural pig pasture, where they 
eat the fallen apples and the orchard grass, 
which is constantly growing up to make 
fresh feed. A clover field is the next best 
pasture, and green com stalks or sugar cane 
(sorghum) is the best substitute for either. 
Roots fed raw in the field are excellent. 
'Wheat middlings is the best supplementary 
food in the grain line to give either to the 
sows or pigs, and they should have enough 
to keep them in good growing condition ; it 
should not be a question with the farmer how 
heavy and fat he can make his pigs, but how 
much the growth costs. If a pound of pork 
worth seven cents, costs seven cents, then 
there is no profit, but if it costs only half as 
much there is just so much profit. The 
benefit to a pasture in which the pigs run in 
enriching the soil should be taken into the 
account, while the advantage of always 
breathing pure air instead of the fumes of a 
reeking pig-pen, is of vast importance. Pure 
air helps to make pure blood, which, in the 
course of nature, builds up healthful bodies. 
These out-of-door pigs would not show so well 
at the fairs, and would probably be passed 
over by judges and people who have been 
taught to admire only the fat and helpless 
things which get the prizes. Such pigs are 
well adapted to fill lard kegs, whereas the 
standard of perfection should be a pig which 
will make the most ham -with the least waste 
of fat, the longest and deepest sides, with 
the most lean meat; it should have bone 
enough to allow it to stand up and help itself 
to food, and carry with it the evidence of 
health and natural development in all its 
parts. Pigs which run in a range or pasture 
have good appetites—the fresh air and exer¬ 
cise give them this—hence they will eat a 
great variety of food and much coarser than 
when confined in pens. Nothing need go to 
waste on the farm for lack of a market. They 
will consume all the refuse fruit, roots, 
pumpkins, and all kinds of vegetables, which 
will make them grow. By extending the 
root patch, and planting the fodder corn 
thinner, so that nubbins will form on it, and 
by putting in a sweet variety, the number of 
pigs may be increased in proportion. A few 
bushels of corn at the end of the season will 
finish off the pig. The pig pasture will be 
ready the next year for any crop, and ten 
times the advantage accrue to the farm than 
if the pigs are confined in close pens, for, as 
pigs are usually managed on the farm, but 
little manure is ever made from them. 
American Cheese and its Export. 
BY HON. X. A. WILLARD, LITTLE FALLS, N. Y. 
Too Much Cheese of One Sort, 
American Cheese is nearly all made after 
one pattern. It is in imitation of the Ched¬ 
dars of England, a cheese suiting the national 
taste better perhaps than any other variety. 
The production or imitation of other sorts of 
foreign cheese in the United States is in veiy 
limited quantity, and confined to few locali¬ 
ties. For the past twenty-five years the lead¬ 
ing idea of our dairymen has been to make 
an article for export to Britain, with little or 
no regard to home wants. England was a 
good customer and took largely of our prod¬ 
uct, and so there has been great effort to suit 
the English taste in every particular, as to 
flavor, color, texture, shape, and style. Agents 
have been sent abroad to study and report 
upon the best methods of English cheese 
making. The shippers and dealers have been 
constantly urging every feature of the English 
standard, sharply discriminating in price on 
faulty cheese, and our dairymen have looked 
to them as guides for correcting imperfec¬ 
tions. The result of all this is that we have 
a pretty uniform product which Englishmen 
esteem for its excellence, and which, on ac¬ 
count of its being sold at a comparatively 
low price, is fast crowding out “ English- 
rnake,” and causing British cheese dairying to 
be unremunerative. 
What will England do ? 
A very serious question has now arisen in 
England in regard to the best means of meet¬ 
ing American competition. Must cheese¬ 
dairying be abandoned in Britain ? The Sec¬ 
retary of the Royal Agricultural Society, 
Mr. Jenkins, Prof. Sheldon, and other dairy 
writers in England, are urging upon British 
dairymen the necessity of introducing the 
manufacture of various kinds of cheese made 
on the continent of Europe, notably the soft 
French sorts. These are esteemed as luxuries 
by the wealthy, can be made at a profit, and 
a large consumption it is thought might be 
had in the chief cities of Britain. Among the 
farmers and landholders there is a strong 
party looking forward to some protection 
from the government—urging that a duty be 
imposed on foreign cheese, sufficient to pro¬ 
tect the dairy industry of the country, and save 
her dairymen from the ruin impending from 
American competition. The late agricultural 
distress in England has intensified this feeling, 
and those well informed in regard to the situ¬ 
ation are of the opinion that a tariff may yet 
be placed on American cheese and some other 
forms of concentrated food imported into the 
Kingdom. Some such plan, it is urged, must 
be adopted in order to induce dairy farmers 
to continue on the land. They say it remains 
with England to choose whether she will 
give protection to her dairy industry, or see 
those engaged in it abandon the farms and 
seek relief by emigrating to the ‘ ‘ New World.” 
She can hardly afford to lose her best farm¬ 
ers, with no hope of supplying their place in 
an industry which can not be made to pay 
expenses. This view of the situation, it is 
said, is also held by Governor Seymour and 
other American statesmen. In Cheshire, it is 
asserted on good authority, the bare cost of 
producing milk is more than 14 cents per 
gallon. If this be so, it will be seen how diffi¬ 
cult it is to convert Cheshire milk into cheese 
and compete with American manufactures. 
For a long time, and even up to a compara¬ 
tively late date, English cheese was more 
uniform in texture, of better flavor, of longer 
keeping quality, and suited the markets better 
than American. It sold for from 20 to 30 
shillings sterling above American, and so long 
as this difference prevailed it was not so diffi¬ 
cult to compete with the foreign article. 
Now, however, American cheese has been so 
much improved, that the bulk is more uniform 
in quality and is preferred to the great bulk of 
English make, even when market values are 
on an equality. Thus it will be seen, with 
quality and prices in favor of the American 
product, the future of English cheese dairy¬ 
ing—under the present condition of affairs— 
has a most gloomy outlook. 
Our Export Cheese Trade. 
But in case England imposes a duty on 
American cheese, how will it affect the dairy 
interests on this side of the Atlantic ? Will it 
reduce prices here below the cost of produc¬ 
tion, or will it cut off foreign demand, so that 
a good share of our annual surplus must re¬ 
main at home V A duty on American cheese, 
large enough to give relief to English farmers, 
would without doubt check consumption in 
Britain, and even could we afford to make 
cheese low enough for export, there would 
evidently be a much more limited demand 
than at present. The history of the cheese 
trade has fully demonstrated, in the past, the 
fact that when prices go above certain limits 
consumption falls off rapidly, and hence any 
legislation to protect English dairying—by 
raising prices—would be likely to cause a dis¬ 
turbance to the dairy industry of this country. 
Canada and the Colonies, 
But there is another feature in the trade 
which, it is feared by some, may be inaugu¬ 
rated. It is a discrimination between the 
goods coming from the United States and 
those from Canada and other colonies. Can¬ 
ada has become a formidable competitor with 
us in the export of dairy produce, Canada 
now makes goods of the finest quality, and 
cheese dairying is rapidly developing in the 
Dominion. At the present rate of increase she 
will be able, at no late date, to supply Eng¬ 
land with all the cheese needed, provided the 
dairy industry of Britain is kept up. Aus¬ 
tralia and New Zealand are also entering 
largely upon the business, and it has been 
suggested that some arrangement is likely 
to be made by England imposing duties from 
the United States, and allowing it to come in 
free from Canada and the Colonies. The pro¬ 
tective policy of our Government towards Can¬ 
ada and England it is said strongly favors this 
