474 
WISCONSIN STATE ACItlCULTUIlAL SOCIETY, 
products were very imperfectly understood. In 1860, Samuel 
Perry, of New York, attempted to control the entire export product 
of American dairies. He sent his agents early in the season, 
throughout the whole dairy section of New York and Ohio, then 
the only two states from which cheese was exported, and they con¬ 
tracted for him the bulk of the farm dairies at an average price of 
from 8c to 10c per pound. 
A large share of the cheese in those days was bought on credit, a 
small sum being paid during summer, but the final settlement and 
payment was made on the first of January. Mr. Perry, by offering 
a penny or so per pound more than other dealers believed the mar¬ 
ket would warrant, was enabled to secure almost the entire make 
of the season. 
A great disaster, as is well known, followed this purchase. Much 
of the cheese was badly made, and it rotted on his hands and was 
thrown into the docks. Sales could not be made in England to 
cover cost. The approaching war caused troublous times, and cut 
off our southern trade. Financial difficulties at the opening of 1861 
were frequent and pressing, and the great merchants went to the 
wall leaving thousands of dairymen unpaid. The lesson was a se¬ 
vere one to all concerned, but it was useful in this — that ever after, 
dairymen have been cautious in selling on long credits, while no 
one dealer, single-handed, has since that time attempted to control 
a product which from its increased magnitude is beyond the grasp 
of our means and resources. 
Although Mr. Jesse Williams, of Rome, N. Y., had conceived the 
idea of the factory system, and put it in operation in 1857, it did 
not begin to attract attention until about 1860. Up to this date 
{I860), only 23 factories had been erected, but as the factory cheese 
was generally better made, and more uniform in shape, texture and 
quality, and as less labor resulted in making as well as in buying 
(because cheese was then bought on the shelves on personal inspec¬ 
tion), the system began to be regarded with favor by both dealers 
and farmers. 
Mr. Williams learned the art of cheese dairying in Herkimer. 
He was an original thinker, and to him are we indebted more than 
to any other, for the great progressive step which places American 
dairying to-day in the front rank among the nations of the earth. 
The whole frame work of the American system sprung from his 
