State Convention—Grass is King. 
391 
to wipe out this stigma; and, by adopting the best modes of mak¬ 
ing butter and cheese, and aiming at the highest standard of excel¬ 
lence, to place the dairy-products of the west in the u dress-circle ” 
of the dairy markets of the world. There is almost as much wit or 
skill displayed in marketing as in making butter and cheese. A 
reputation for neatness must be first established; and after the ut¬ 
most care has been observed to make a perfect article, there must 
also be careful handling, and avoidance of rough transportation or 
unsightly packages. If water transportation is available, by all 
means, avoid the jolts of land transportation for both butter and 
cheese. The item of transportation alone, even in New England 
and New York, is one that affects the market-value of these dairy- 
products in New York and Boston. So important is it in the 
British markets to have these articles presented for sale under favor¬ 
able auspices, that English importers of American cheese repack it 
in neat and sightly packages, which are designed to conceal the 
fact that it came from a land where cute and cunning dairymen are 
not satisfied with fair profits, but try to sell skim-milk cheese on 
the reputation of honest dairymen, who established a market for 
whole-milk cheese of excellent quality. 
APPORTIONING STOCK TO LAND. 
As to the capacity of land to sustain cattle and sheep, it is a tol¬ 
erably safe rule, that an animal eats in proportion to his or her 
weight; and we may assume that a sheep or cow will eat three 
pounds of hay per day for each one hundred pounds of live-weight. 
A merino sheep, in an average flock, weighs about two-thirds of a 
hundred pounds, and will consume about two pounds of hay per 
day, or its equivalent in grass. This is equal to seven hundred and 
thirty pounds per annum; which at a cost or value of $5 per ton, 
is, say $2. One acre of land should produce not less than two tons 
of hay, worth $10; and this may be safely considered as the upset 
cost of feeding six sheep for a year. Their fleeces should be worth 
(at thirty cents per pound for six pounds each) $9. The increase 
of the flock will certainly square their board-bill, and leave the 
farm enough better and richer for their droppings to credit the 
sheep with a good share of the resources for the next year's busi¬ 
ness. 
Ordinary estimates allow ten such sheep per acre of grass or pas- 
