The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1874-03-19
CONDENSED FARM PRODUCTS.

CONDENSED FARM PRODUCTS.
The following article, from the Chicago
Inter. Ocean, though written for Western
latitude, is equally applicable to Virginia
and deserves to be read and pondered by
everybody, It solves the problem of
cheap transportation:
"a farmer who harvests his corn, his
oats and his hay, and sells them at the
nearest town, investing whatever of net
profit may remain in bonds or other secu-
rites, will each year witness decreasing
yield, until his lands will evidently become
exhausted almost beyond reclamation. On
the other hand, the farmer who puts his
crude crops into cattle, sheep, and hogs,
fattening them for market on his own
ground, will secure much larger percent.
age of net profit. and at the same time
hold his soil nearly, if not quite.
up to its original degree of fertility.
The one robs his farm. The other nonr.
ishes 1t. The one markets only crude,
cheap articles. The other converts his
corn, oats. and hay into beef, mutton, and
pork, thus saving all the meaner parts to
the soil as compensation for his care and
trouble, and securing larger return in
money than could have been obtained for
the whole in their crude state. The farmer
who fattens cattle and sells them does
well; but the farmer who rears cows and
converts their milk into butter and cheese
does better. 1t is step higher in the re-
lining and utilizing process, and pays
proportionately larger percentage of profit.
The state of New York alone has
arlp th1.r IL r
which consume the milk of $4,000 cows,
and produce annually 100000 pounds
OF cheese. This branch of manufacture
has grown rapidly. In 1853 only 100000
pounds OF cheese were exported from the
United States in 1870 the export rose to
1,oOO, 600 pounds, and in 1872 to &c ,0OO,-
goo pounds. The total production of the
whole country is about 100, 900 900 pounds.
England exports scarcely 5000, 900 pounds,
while Holland, which was formerly the
chief exporting cheese country of the world,
has fallen far behind the United States in
this branch oftrade. New York with ad-
vantages for making cheese far inferior to
those possessed by the West, furnishes
two-thlrds of the entire cheese product of
the country. r
d" In the West cheese manufacturing is
N ITS infancy. Factories are, however,
being established in many Of the Western
states, and the attention of agriculturists
IS being attracted to the importance of the
dairy as an adjunct to farming operations.
With richer grazing lands and shorter
Winters. the farmer of the West possesses
an advantage which more than compensates
Tor the increased cost of transportation of |
cheese to the seaboard for the export |
trade. It is through the multiplication of
these refined and condensed products that
the farmer of the West is able to
overcome the oneroHs tax of transport
alton. 1t bears heavily upon corn.
oats, wheat, cattle, hogs and sheep.
A large percentage of the value OF these
products is consumed in transportation for
all long distances. If the wool of the sheen
IS clipped here and shipped, the loss in
transportation is reduced in the ratio of it's
proporhonate greater value than the carcass.
ii the wool is wrought into fabrics here, a
sun greater saving is secured. The further
the Ginning process is carried, the greater
The saving. If the milk of the COW is con-
'erted into cheese, loss in transportation
n that dlrectionis avoided. The farmer can
not be too often reminded of the fact that
is dead loss to him. If his
market is New York, he must pay the whole
cost OF sending his products there so, also, '
! the market is Liverpool. The consumer {
Toes not come to the producer. The pro-
iucer must go to the consumer. Hence A.,
I IS that we hear the cry for cheap trans ,
,,ortaton. But there is, in fact, no such /
hlng as cheap transportation for gross bulky Z
md heavy substances. The true economy
to turn these substances into less weighty
nd more valuable products, to refine them, :
sing me grosser parts at homes, and ship
ing abroad the more valuable parts. A
ushel of corn weighs Sc pounds. Saw it
worth 40 cents in New York, or cent
nd quarter pound, and that it costs
D cents to get it there, or about three
'urths OF cent per pound. 1t thus costs
oi1-sece,tths of the total value of the corn
get it to market. On the other
and "a pound of cheese is
orth 10 cents in New York. Say
will cost one cent for transportation, or .
ae;tyteenh of its value. In the one case,
le farmer must pay fow-seoenths of the
alne OF his crop to reach a market; in
he other, ne pays only one-ffteeaM to
zach the same market. 1t may be said
at no farmer can turn all his products
to cheese. True but every farmer can
anufacture some cheese, and in every ia
ance where he converts bushel of corn
to cheese through the process of feeding
to cows, he cuts down the rate of trans. 10
rtation on that proportion of his crops No
I'm four-sevenths to one-fifteenth of their az
lue. gu
There is still another view to be taken de-
refining and utilizing coarse products.
le raising vast quantities ofcorn, wheat,
d oats, and selling them in bulk, has =
.steiul tendency whereas, converting
ese products into more valuable forms of
srchandise tends to economy. 1t is a fact I'm
1t the cultivated lands of Massachusetts
Dduce more per acre than those OF Illinois.
ing to more careful tillage. Western
mers, seeing great fields of waving
nm, become careless of the yield per i.
e, looking only TO the gross quantity of 4.
ar a thanaat nd oa,on