AMERICAN dairying. 
467 
Thus it will be seen that the products of the dair}’- — milk, but¬ 
ter and cheese — have a geneology that goes far back of the “Dooms¬ 
day book.” They have a history forty centuries old, and this it 
would seem must be old enough for the most fastidious lover of 
“ old cheese.” 
But what must be considered remarkable in this connection is 
that these products have been regarded in all ages of the world as 
luxuries, or among the highest types of human food. Abraham set 
before his angel visitors “ milk and butter., and they did eat.” Now 
with all due respect for the wonderful progress of this century, and 
the skill of our “gilt-edged butter makers,” can we not reasonably 
infer that the butter of Abraham’s time, fit to be set before the 
angels, could have been anything less than excellent, and doubtless 
it was far superior to much of the butter made at this day, which I 
am sorry to say is hardly fit to set before even the wicked. 
But I have proposed to speak to you upon “American Dairying,” 
which at best as a specialty can hardly be considered a century old. 
Dairying as a specialty was practiced in England and Holland, and 
in other parts of Europe previous to the 16th century, and the early 
emigrants to this country must have brought with them the art of 
butter and cheese making. But previous to the year 1800, there 
seems to have been no considerable number of dairies grouped to¬ 
gether and prosecuting the business as a specialty in any part of 
America. Most farmers in those days kept a stock of horned cattle 
—animals raised for beef, for working oxen, with cows for breeding 
and for producing milk, butter and cheese to supply home wants. 
The farming of those days was of a mixed character, nearly every 
want of the family being supplied from the farm. 
In the fall of 1800, a very exciting election was had for President 
of the United States, the candidates being Mr. Adams and Mr. 
Jefferson, and to this circumstance are we indebted for a bit of 
dairy history—the first really notable affair concerning the dairy 
that had as yet occurred in the New World. In those days one of 
the great pulpit politicians of New England was Elder John Leland. 
Politics ran high, and the contest between Federalists and Dem¬ 
ocrats was almost as bitter as that between Republicans and Dem¬ 
ocrats to-day. Puritan pulpits launched their thunderbolts against 
Jefferson, the great Democratic leader, charging him with Ueing 
an infidel of the French revolutionary school. “In the little town of 
