AMERICAN DAIRYING, 
483 
sellers meet on regular market days for the transaction of business 
in dairy goods. The telegraph is here brought into requisition, and 
sellers go upon the market knowing something of the demand and 
the price on both sides of the Atlantic. At the interior markets 
competition often runs high, and merchants sometimes complain 
that margins are narrow, and money not so easily made as when 
the goods were bought at the factory on city quotations. Be this 
as :t may, the dairjmien now have a sort of commercial education. 
They study the markets, home and foreign, and they judge when it 
is best to realize on their goods. 
SHRINKAGE IN VALUES FOR 1876. 
The shrinkage in values on nearly all kinds of property during 
1876 has been very considerable. Real estate has depreciated from 
25 to 30 per cent. The fall in cotton goods and some other manu¬ 
factures has been very great. The value of nearly all our agricul- 
•tural products is below the range of 1874, and it is not surprising 
under the pressure of the times, that dairy goods should have been 
comparatively low. But even under the darkest phase of the times 
the outlook of dairying is by no means discouraging. Indeed, there 
is no class of farmers better off to-dav than the dairymen. They 
have sold their goods from month to month and from week to week 
for cash, and their goods have found a ready market without push¬ 
ing, while other products have been dull and slow of sale even at 
greatly reduced rates. The European demand has been fully equal 
to our surplus, and exports keep values upon a gold basis. It is 
true prices have been low, but not nearly so low as they were years 
ago, when dairymen found it not difficult to amass fortunes in the 
business. 
The one hopeful sign for our increased production is, that Eng¬ 
lish production is decreasing while the increase of population in 
our cities and towns calls more and more for additional supplies of 
fresh milk and an increased quantity of butter and cheese for home 
consumption. That we are not over-producing is proved by the free 
disposal of the entire products of the dairy from year to year. 
Very likely if the make were less, prices would advance, but the 
values realized on account of scarcity press heavily upon the masses, 
who for the most part find it hard to make the ends meet from year 
to yea'r. It is better that the people have cheap food with moder- 
