470 
Annual Report of the 
to consideration exhausting effects of grain-growing on land. With 
inferior soil the New England farmers are making greater profit 
than the grain-raising farmers in the most fertile districts of the 
West, because of nearness to markets and successful dairies. 
I will here give a synopsis of the most important facts elicited in 
the discussion during the three-days 1 session of the prominent dai¬ 
rymen of New England and New York, held at the capital of 
Vermont. 
MAGNITUDE OF THE DAIRY BUSINESS. 
.Ex-Lieutenant-Governor Hyde, of Stratford, Connecticut, the 
most successful breeder of Devons in America, and one of the 
first-class dairymen of the country, estimated the capital invested 
in American dairies at over one thousand millions of dollars, 
($1,COO,000,000). The annual cheese products exceed $30,000,000. 
Our annual exports of cheese are valued at about $10,000,000 for 
say 70,000,000 pounds. Our butter products exceed $200,000,000 
in value, of which we export over 10,000,000 pounds, or $2,500,000 
in value. The report of the American Dairymen’s Association for 
1871 gives 1,282 cheese and butter-factories in the United States, 
against 1,233 in 1870, and 1,066 in 1869. More than half these 
factories show an average of 415 cows for each establishment. 
The whole consumed the milk of half a million cows. The fol¬ 
lowing were the averages of the states leading in dairy manufactures 
in 1870: For each factory in New York, 419 cows; Ohio, 519 
cows; Illinois, Massachusetts, Vermont, Michigan, collectively, 383 
cows; Wisconsin, 278 cows; Pennsylvania, 182 cows. The num¬ 
ber of dairy factories in these states are reported as follows: New 
York, 963; Ohio, 98; Illinois, 46; Massachusetts, 30; Vermont, 35; 
Michigan, 26; Wisconsin, 26; Pennsylvania, 19. In the single 
county of Oswego, New York, a capital of $9,000,000 is invested in 
dairy agriculture alone. 
CHEESE AS NUTRITIOUS AND ECONOMICAL FOOD. 
The inspector of milk at Providence, R. I., after thoroughly 
testing the matter, asserts and maintains by incontrovertible proof, 
that sirloin steak (adding the loss on bones) at 35 cents per pound is 
dearer than milk at 14 cents per quart; corned beef at 17 cents as 
dear as milk at 15 cents, and eggs at 30 cents per dozen as dear as 
milk at 20 cents per quart. Hence he concludes that milk even at 10 
