Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1873-03-12
Minor Products of the Farm.

A great deal has been written and said
about the agricultural and farming inter-
ests of East Tennessee on large scale and
the productions of our river bottoms pro-
claimed, while the fertility of the uplands
and ridges have also been stated, but COM
paratively little has been said about the
minor products of the farm, which gener-
ally come under the female department of
the farmers household.
We include in this list, poultry, butter,
eggs, cheese, milk, dried fruit, &c, as SUI
pernumerary to the regular products, grain,
fruit stock and other articles of profit.
These minor articles were a few years ago
to the country people what small change
is to a merchant-useful for the purpose of
procuring articles of luxury, sugar, coffee,
&c.-but not taken into account in the
general household expenditures.
We say n few years ago these articles
were reckoned of secondary importance,
but now they are becoming better appre-
ciated. There are now not less than half
dozen men in every county in East Ten
nessee who make it a special business for
several months i'll the year to scour the
country for the purpose of buying up every
thing of the kind for city consumption or
producer and profit to the middle men
whose efforts are appreciated by the con-
sumers, who, in the end, have to foot the
bills.
This is especially true of the products of
the dairy and poultry yard, sources of in
come hitherto despised, but now assuming
respectable if not colossal proportions, and
growing from year to year. Knoxville is
now the centre OF a considerable proper
ton of this trade and it is within
bounds to say that the transactions in
these articles in Knoxville average from
$4,000 to $500 per day. In addition to
the dealers in this city there are traders at
every depot and in almost every town and
neighborhood in the different counties of
East Tennessee. Butter is gathered at all
these points and shipped to Knoxville and
few of the towns along the line of rail-
road where it is packed for shipment in
large quantities The same is true of eggs
and not less than from five hundred TO
eighteen hundred dozen have been ship
ped from this point daily for several weeks
past. The heaviest dealers are. Messrs.
Allison d McClung and w. B. Williams
d Co., with several others on a smaller
scale, while other commission houses also
do a considerable business in this line.
Within the past few months several fine
diaries have been started at different points
in this section and in a years time the
Importance of these minor article will be
increased fifty per cent. above what they
now are, and where from S30,0 600 to $4,000
are now brought into the country from the
sale of articles that would otherwise be in
"A manner frittered away, without bringing
in any commensurate return for even the
small outlay necessary to prepare these
articles for market.
We might extend this article indefinite
ly by enumerating the trade in feathers
wax, furs and scores of other articles, but
our readers willsee that by the outstanding
of small articles large results are attained
and the truth of the Scoth proyerb ''many
little makes mickle" clearly shown.