792 
THE RURAL 
ORXER. 
DEC. W 
The Greatest Display of Dairy « 
Products Ever Made. » 
_ N« 
AN ENCOURAGING SUCCESS IN ALL ^ 
RESPECTS. of 
-- Di 
FULL SPECIAL REPORTS. fo 
__ H 
THE GREAT DAIRY FAIR. 
The term International is applied to so many hi 
even petty things now-a-daya that, with all is 
deferenoo to the management, the nse of the 
word gives a BOrt of impression of clap-trap—a P 
cheap “ greatest-show-on-earth" sort of tiling. si 
So the visitor to the International Dairy Fair, b 
has been at once most agreeably disappointed in cl 
finding solid excellence and positive interest of u 
a verv high degree drawing him thither day n 
after day aud detaining him, in Bpite of himself, h 
in the investigation of what might at first have 
seemed common-pi ace and unattractive to any f 
exoept professional dairymen. * 
the arkanoembwt of the n ism ax 
is very simple. The spacious floor of the old L 
•‘Rink” (now the exhibition building of the . 
American Institute) is occupied by the butter . 
aud cheese display, mainly arranged iu groups, j 
by States, or classified according to oertain pre- t 
rniums offered for the best butter or cheese £ 
made from certain kinds of salt. The cheese is £ 
shown iu lots weighing not less than 250 lbs. ; £ 
the butter iu lots of 200 lbs., if made iu cream- ^ 
eries, andiu lots of 1U0 lbs, if made in private 
dairies, except when competing for the special j 
prizes offered for the best 50 pounds made with ( 
Higgins's Eureka salt, or with Ashton's Factory- 
filled salt. . 
Grouped near the great fount A in iu the center j 
of the floor, are the lofty cheese pyramid of the 
Messrs. H. K. A F. B. Thurber & Co., sur- | 
mounted by a well stuffed specimen of a Jersey 
cow and gay with flags, evergreens and quaint 
motioeB from the Bible, Shakepeare and Hudi- 
bras, and a far lesH pretentious, but scarcely lees 
attractive pyramid of American oheese, erect¬ 
ed by Smith & Underhill, conspicuous for its 
severe simplicity and freedom from any clue 
to proprietorship ; and besides, thore are two 
more or less pyramidal pillars of salt in bigs— 
the one, Higgins’s Eureka, shown by the Thnr- 
bers ; the other, Ashtons’, shown by their 
agentB, F. D. Moulton & Co. Along one side of 
the floor, happily the cheese side, the cow stalls 
are arranged, and at the farther end two cheese 
factories, Whitman & Burrell’s, aud Jones & 
Faulkner’s, are m full operation, exhibiting rival 
vats and apparatus. Churning and butter¬ 
working are going on also at each of these 
stands, to the great interest of the ever-changing 
crowd. 
DAIRY apfahatcs and appliances 
of all kinds are Rbown on the elevated platform 
surrounding the floor; as are also patent milk- 
pails, strainers and coolers; vats for setting for 
cream; vats for ohoeBe making; creamers, that 
is, systems of Betting tnifk for the rapid separa¬ 
tion of the cream; churns in great, variety; 
butter-workers to the number of five or six; 
Gutter prints or molds, some for simply etampieg 
the butter upon one eido, and one for stamping 
it upon five sides in brick-form and very rapidly; 
butter packages in great variety, including those 
wrapping or packing butter in pound or half- 
pound prints, and those adapted to packing 50 Jbs. 
in tubs, or 100 lbs. in boxes ; butter coloring 
shown in three different forms, namely, in solu¬ 
tion in alkali and water, in solution in oil, aud 
in the form of highly colored salt; rennot-ex- 
tract in both solid and fluid form; lactometers, 
cream gauges, etc. ; thermometers for dairy use 
and a great variety of minor utensils; butter 
and cheese tryers, etc. ; Howe’s New Improved 
scales; jars of glass for transporting milk, 
cream or butter ; milk cans, and perhaps other 
articles of property for dairy use. 
Besides tnese, the New York Plow Co., makes 
a display of goods particularly adapted to dairy- 
farmers’ needs. Somebody . hows a hay cutter 
working with a Bcalloped knife which would make 
bard work on moBt farms look like fun. The ex¬ 
hibitor had not any cards and did not tell his 
name. The Alligretti and Whitson refrigerators 
made each a great sho w. There were in addition a 
number of exhibits having not the least reference 
to dairy matters which were allowed in the 
building probably because they paid well aud 
helped*to flit up, for there was room and to 
spare. 
THE CATTLE SHOW 
was a source of constant interest to all classes of 
visitors, and to none more than to the exhibi¬ 
tors of oheese and butter. There were a few 
good specimens of the cows of several breeds 
and a few bulls. The Ayrsbires came near¬ 
est the door and consisted of a number of 
young things with a single cow which, by the 
way, had a nice calf the Becond day of the fair, 
Bhown by Wm. Crozier, and three superb oows 
belonging to S. M. & D. Wells of Wethersfield 
Ct. These throe cows represent the three 1 
principal families of their herd. They are < 
24-to-30 quart cowb and have won prizes enough 1 
to lead us to speak of them with groat reaped, 
even were they less perfect types cf the breed 
than they really are. Next to them come the 
Holland oattlo called Holsteins, belonging to Jas. 
NeilsoD, two bulls and halt a dozen females. 
Among them were two very symmetrical heifers, 
and some fresh cows, yielding each a large mess 
of milk. Beyond theae stand three beautiful 
Devons belonging to Harvey N. Weed, of Stam¬ 
ford Ct. How slc-ek and smooth their red coatB 1 
How symmetrical their white horns' And how 
line their forms 1 Jfow closely also they match 
in form and feature! No breed of neat cattle 
has anywhere near so thoroughbred a look or 
is no perfect iu all good points as the beauti¬ 
ful Devon. Next to the Dsvons stand the 
Polled Norfolka only two—a cow, and a heifer 
shown by G. F. Taber, of Patterson N. Y. This 
beautiful breed is red, like the Devons, and is 
claimed to be equally good for beef, and for 
milk. »The animals exhibited are remarkably 
fine; in fact, one seldom seeB a finer cow, take 
her all in all, than the older one. 
It was unfortunate to placo the Jerseys next, 
for they rarely show well alongside of Devons, 
and the Norfoiks are no better companions for 
them. Tht-me breeds keep in good flesh while 
they are giving 14 to 20 quarts of milk a day, 
but the Jerseys milk down very thin, and it is 
impossible to keep a good cost in flesh while she 
is iu foil milk. Next to the Norfoiks come 
James A. Hoyt’s Jerseys, very beautiful ones 
they were, and very good ones, too. He showed 
a large solid-colored bull and several females, 
among them one old cow, quite thin but of moat 
excellent form, having a flue maternal face, 
which it is a pleasure to see. Next to these, 
Mr. Crozier showed some good Jcrseya and one 
Guernsey, among them two cows recognized as j 
those with which their owner won the award at 
the Centennial Exhibition, and also tbo highest 
prizo as well as the herd prize at the New York 
State Fair this year—namely, Josephine second : 
and Bella Hiuman. The Hue of cows is com¬ 
pleted by a number of “natives” exhibiting 
points of decided excellence as miioh cowb ; but, 
as a rule, coarse, heavy gross animals contrast¬ 
ing unfavorably with all the rest. 
As a whole, the oows form not only one of the 
moBt attractive features, hut one of the most in¬ 
structive ; and to the breeders the advertisement 
has been so valuable that similar opportunities 
will not be neglected. Nevertheless, it was a 
great blunder to place them on the floor of the 
Rink. There was plenty of space in the rear 
room, called the machinery annex, where the 
odors of the stable would not have contaminated 
the butter and the milk. We observed butter 
which was exposed near the oows only a short 
time, which though freshly churned from excel¬ 
lent cream, was so tainted with those odors as to 
he absolutely unedible. s 
BUSINESS ASPECT OF THE PATH. 
the last, and every allowance ought to be made, 
considering that the whole thing was new to 
those who had the control of it, as was pain¬ 
fully evident from the rules and premium list 
put out by them. 
The Fair owes a great deal to the zealous co¬ 
operation of the Messrs. Thurber A Co., one of 
whom has just returned from a dairy trip to 
Europe where he attended the great Dairy F j .ir 
of London. There he interested at least one 
notable English dealer to make a most interest¬ 
ing exhibit of 
FOREION CHEESES, 
and moreover, ho brought out a moist curious 
and iustructivo collection of cheeses, bimself- 
lt is wonderful wbat attachment mankind ex¬ 
bibit for cheese such as they have been ac¬ 
customed to, or brought up upou. This alone 
will account for the continued use of thoBO bar¬ 
baric forms and varieties of chcoso which ci.e 
seeB, such as the common kinds of It dy, Spain, 
Switzerland, and oven of Germany and Holland. 
Nothing can be worse in apperranee than the 
cheese put up in bladders or oilier skins, in Italy 
and Spain ; certainly nothing is so bad m odor 
as the Limburg and some others of the cheeses 
of Central Europe. We have loug imitated tho 
cheeses of England; more recently those of 
France and Germany ; and it is not too much 
to expect that oDr cheese-makers will he vying 
with Spain iu goats' milk cheeses, and possibly 
with Nubia in cheeses of mares’ and camels’ 
miik, if there is a market for them. 
THE UlAJlKET. 
A Dairy Fair is a novelty in the city Of New 
York. We are quite accustomed to seeiug on9 
whole quarter of the city, and other localities 
besides, given up, in a great measure, to traffic 
in blitter aud cheese, and our dealers might any 
d&y, and in fact do every day, make a greater 
show than is this week seen at the Amerioan In¬ 
stitute Building. Nevertheless the show proves 
of great interest to many people. So far as 
appears upon the face of things, we conclude 
that the show had its inception in the natural 
desire of tho groat cheese and butter interests 
of the great West, to gdiu for their ever-in¬ 
creasing and improving products a wider repu¬ 
tation and better market than their home shows 
and fairs afforded. The Dairymen of New 
York and Pennsylvania have long enjoyed a sort 
of monopoly in which they have felt secure, and 
have uot minded it much when somehow or 
other prizes to which they felt themselves en¬ 
titled, as at the Centennial, for instance, by the 
favor or error, or just decision (?) of Judges, 
went to the West, especially when the slighted 
articles would bring several cents more per 
pound in the open market than those which won 
the prize. They have been, to say the least, 
not enthusiastic about tho fair, and perhaps 
have not prayed fervently for its success. Why 
should they ? They stand at the head now, and 
it iB not* exactly pleasant to Le crowded and 
jostled by an aspiring crowd, each trying to 
gain the name position of pre-eminence, many 
not being over scrupulous as to the ways aud 
means. Nevertheless, we arc proud to say they 
contributed liberally to the show. They made 
their entries in time—on or before the 20th of 
November—and their goods were here and ready 
to be put on the tables promptly on the 28th. 
This was according to tho published require¬ 
ments, aud, of course, they feel as if it was 
hardly fair for goods, especially for butter, to 
to be entered and presented as late as the mid¬ 
dle of the week of the Fair, and still be admitted 
to competition with their own—“ kept" as one 
of them phrases it, “ in a cow stable for a 
week.” 
This stale of things was unavoidable; even 
the managers had no idea of the grand success 
which the Fair would prove, and were unpre¬ 
pared for it. Exhibitors held aloof and many 
had to he urged to come. These came quite at 
We may well consider what the market is 
for our Dairy produce. It seems fairly to be 
limitless. Certainly at present and for a long 
time to come it is and will be unlimited. We 
are making great advances iu our ability to pro¬ 
duce these standard articles cheaper and better 
than ever beforo. Herkimer County butter, 
packed in June 1S75, was opened on Thursday 
last, “ fresh as a rose.” Wo need not fear to 
meet tho butter of either Ireland or Denmark, 
famous aud excellent as they both are, in the 
markets of the world. If, however, great as 
our exports have become, we study statistics as 
wo should, it will appear that wo are not doing 
very much, after all. France aud Holland are 
vastly our superiors ; aud beside the enormous 
exports from these countries, their populations 
consumo cheese as we do meat. What we hav6 
especially to look to is improvement in flavor, 
and this* should begin with the feed whiob the 
oows have both in summer aud winter. Next, 
the purity of the milk promoted by its exclusion 
from, the air of the stable, aud from all contam¬ 
ination, is one of the moat important things— 
all the more important because neglected and 
very hard to secure. We havo been improving 
cur processes of cheese and butter making und 
marketing, until but little improvement seems 
now to be passible, and yet it may be iu these 
particulars that the most important advances 
may soon be made. 
In one thing certainly we must change; we 
should eat more cheese ourselves, as a nation. 
We are small consumers of oheese, and it Is an 
exceedingly palatable, nutritious, muscle-build¬ 
ing and cheap food. 
THE ADDHK9SES. 
The instructive addresses of Ex-Governor 
Seymour on Tuesday evening, of Hon. B F. 
Butler on Wednesday, aud of Mr. F. B. Thurber 
on Thursday evening, have beeu an important 
aud valuablo feature of the fair. The speakers 
have dwelt more or less upon statistics, but 
havo given us other aud very instructive views 
of the whole subject. This was particularly the 
case with Mr. Webb, a very large English dealer 
in dairy goods, whose address on Friday evening 
was a comprehensive view of the mercantile 
features of cheese from a foreign standpoint. 
Prof. Arnold, also, spoke entertainingly, hut 
his words, like those of most of the other speak¬ 
ers, were indistinguishable six feet from the 
platform, because of the ever-present noise in 
all parts of the large hall. 
tend. Gradual progress is better than sudden 
revolution, and if this fair has contributed its 
quota of improvements, that is all we have a 
right to ask of it. That it has not only done so, 
but greatly surpassed any other dairy exhibi¬ 
tion that has ever been held iu this country, I 
think no one who has seen thorn will deny. 
Fortunately tbero was no disagreement or die- 
sention among the projectors of the enterprise, 
and without any special experience in this hue, 
they had energy and good sense enough to press 
it through to a magnificent success. All men 
cannot bo original, but they can be accommodat¬ 
ing, and this excellent quality pervaded every 
member of the committee of arrangements, and 
caused them to tarnish everything within their 
power for testing cows, implements and pro¬ 
ducts, which to the practical eye that is familiar 
with the common processes of the dairy was in¬ 
teresting, absorbing, educating to tho highest 
degree, ir milk was wanted, it was furnished by 
the wagon load ; so with water, ica aud anything 
that was called for, the supply was equal to the 
demand. Tho patent cheese vats turned the 
milk to cards. The patent annatto was on band 
to color it; tho new-fangled press to mold it; 
the different kinds of cheese cloths to cover it, 
with innumerable boxes to put it in. For but¬ 
ter the different cream raisers were on baud to 
separate the cream. Tho multitude of churns 
pounded, sloshed or rolled the butter out of it. 
The numerous patterns of butter molds formed 
it into quarters, halves and pounds: aud theie 
was every conceivable form of package on hand 
to skip it iu. With these processes in operation 
before our eyes, we would have been dull 
scholars, indeed, if we ha3 uot noted many 
vast improvements over the old ways cf the 
dairy. 
IMITATION CHEESE. 
PROGRESSIVE FEATURES OF THE BIG 
FAIR. 
ialTHOVEMENT ON BYGONE SHOWS. 
The big fair, the Grand International Dairy 
Exhibition, has come and gone. Tho memory 
of it is stupendous. Think of it—three acres of 
butter and cheese, and some of it thirty feet 
deep. It was truly international, aud. dairymen 
of America, allow me to blush for you! England 
took the grand sweepstakes premium for beet 
cheese, aud Ireland, the beautiful gem of the 
“say,” beat ub in butter. I will never look an 
Irishman in the face agaiu. I am not altogether 
certain that the Irish victory was in the sweep¬ 
stakes contest, but I tasted tho butter and it 
was better than anything I got hold of at the 
fair, no matter where it was made. 
Having indulged in these few “glittering 
generalities " lot us come down to the business 
in hand and Bee if thoro is any Bolid good to 
come of all this hurly-burly. 
All exhibitions of dairy products, like the ex¬ 
hibits in any other liue of commerce, must of 
necessity be, to a great extent, mere repetitions 
of one another. Wo must not look for some¬ 
thing new and startling at each dairy fair we at- 
In cheese the most iutereBting feature was 
the perfection of the American imitations of 
the fiuer classes of European cheeses. The 
faotoiios have been able to imitate English 
cboddar pretty closely, but the art of imitation 
was carried highest by tho dairy makes. A 
dairyman from Otsego County, whose name I 
haveiOMt, displayed a cheese of bij own make, 
that was fall brother to an English Gloucester. 
I was particularly struck with a remark this 
dairyinau let fall. He told mo that his great- 
great-grandfather was an Englishman and made 
Gloucester cheese ia Lbe Old Country amt came 
across the Atlantic bringing the knowledge with 
him. This family has now been making thL 
cheese iu this country something like a hundred 
yearH, imitating an English oheese, and yet this 
was the first time that any of the family, exoept 
the original great-grandfather, over saw an Eng¬ 
lish Gloucester cheese. It is simply a miracle 
that they have beeu ablo to preserve tho uniform 
quality of their cheese until it is to-day a3 cor¬ 
rect an imitation as it was a hundred years ago, 
without once seeing an original package to pat- 
ern after. 
There were two displays from Orange County 
of imitations of the French cheese called 
frvmogc de Brie. Unfortunately there was no 
original paekago on hand to compare with these 
uutikes. This cheese being made of fresh cream, 
will not hear transportation well across tho 
water. This cheese sells in this market for from 
fifty to seventy-five cents a pound. 
Why is It that our dairymen insist upon mak¬ 
ing a third-rate ekim cheese that sells for six or 
seven cents a pound aud drives the consumer out 
of the market, when a little more enterprise and 
patient itudy would quadruple thoir profits . 
These imitations contain a grand lesson, and it 
cannot be long before the dairymen will profit 
by it. 
deep setting. 
NothiDg about this fair was so striking as the 
evidence of the drift of the inventor’s energies 
towards perfecting a system of d*ep sotting for 
cream raiding. A few years ago the whole space 
of a dairy fair was takeu up with full-grown or 
model pans for shallow setting, made to run 
water through, over, ui der aud around them, 
with hot, coid and uo-water attachments. At 
this fair that class of pans was ooaBpiouous by 
its absence. I saw but one model of a shallow 
pan, while there were four systems of deep 
setting on exhibition, with tho representatives 
of three others present. This thing has etr 
tainly been revolutionized. It was generally re¬ 
gretted that a warm room could not be gotten to 
tost the coolers in. 
SALT-LINED BUTTKK PACKAGE. 
There iB probably no one thing that causes * 
greater loss to the butter dahyman than the 
taste of the wood that always gets into butter 
when packed in woodeu tubs and firkins. Vari¬ 
ous linings Lave beeu invented to prevent this, 
but with one common result of a failure, i 
best the dairyman has beeu able to do wad to 
soak his tubs in brine and in that way kill the 
wood taste as much as possiblo. There was o 
exhibition at this fair a salt-lined box. ' 
lining looked as though it wore made of puresalt, 
and was about the sixteenth of an inch in thick 
ness, and-if it does uot melt down and the 
agent assured us it would not-1 WuU 
it a very decided improvement, and of the wj 
highest value to the dairyman. 
The professional butter maker was there go- 
