432 
STATE AGRICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 
The average annual receipts on good dairy farms at the East, at present 
prices of dairy products, are from twenty to twenty-five dollars per acre. 
Before proceeding to give in detail, some of the methods found to be suc¬ 
cessful in dairy practice, it may be well to review in brief the present con¬ 
dition of the cheese interest in this country and Europe. From the figures 
which I shall present, the farmers of Wisconsin will, I trust, be able to see 
more clearly what inducements are offered, in turning their attention to this 
branch of farming. 
It is only quite recently that the dairy has become an important branch of 
national industry. During the past eight years it has been rapidly spreading 
over new fields. It is engaging the attention of farmers in the Eastern, 
Western, North-western and Middle States, wherever lands are adapted to 
grazing, and there are springs and streams of living water. 
The history of American dairying has never been written. Perhaps a 
glance at its rise and progress as a speciality, will not be out of place. 
Herkimer, New York, is the oldest dairy district in America. I knew the 
man in his old age who first began cheese dairying in Herkimer. He came 
into the country on foot from New England more than seventy years ago^ 
He was rich in health and strength. He had eight silver shillings in his 
pocket, an axe upon his shoulder, and two stout arms to swing it. 
Nearly the whole country was then a dense forest. Brant and his Mohawks 
had been gone several years, but traces of their pillage and murders were 
fresh among the early settlers in the valley and along the river. 
The old Dutch heroine, Mrs. Shell was then living in the country. She was 
a noted character during the Revolution, She is represented as having been 
very comely, with a magnificent figure and proportion like that depicted in 
Grecian statues. She had soft brown eyes, and was withal as tender hearted 
as she was courageous. Her husband being at the wars, she took her infant 
to the field, and helped her eldest son, a lad, to hoe the corn, with a musket 
strapped to her shoulders. 
The savages, in more than one encounter, had learned to fear and respect 
Mrs. Shell. Her aim was steady and her bullets death. 
When the Indians besieged her log house she fought side by side with her 
husband, all day and all night, battering the guns with an axe as they thrust 
them through the logs, and firing at the assailants, until help came from the 
Fort. The house stood on the great black slate hills, rising near the Mohawk, 
to the north, overlooking along line of charming scenery. Beyond was a val¬ 
ley, and a still higher elevation. Here the sturdy young New Englander 
picked his land. His strong arms felled the timber over many acres. He 
built his log house and established his herd upon the soil. Then he took to 
wife a Cheshire girl, who made the first cheese dairy in the State. This 
man’s name was Arnold. He accumulated large wealth, was of the strictest 
integrity, and went to his rest honored and respected. 
From such beginnings sprang the mighty giant, that is now stalking over 
the continent, dotting the land with countless herds. Perhaps the strength 
of this interest can best be given in figures: 
