Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1879-12-25
CONGRESSMAN UPDEGRAFF
BEFORE THE DAIRY FAIR
IN NEW YORK CITY.
The Farm Interests in America.

congressman L pdeSraH ADDRESS DeIOre
the Dairy Fair, on the previous evening,
which will be found to be of general in
terest:
''The dairy industry of our country is
yet in its infancy. 1t has a personal in
terest to every one. The most natural
and healthful food is the product of the
COW. A Congressman has an interest in
it, owing to the poor butter in Washing
ton hotels. doubt not, if Congress and
the Cabinet could enjoy every day such
luXuries as i have seen to-day, the cOun-
try would escape many bad laws and
much angry discussion. The poet who
said half our happiness depends on the
gastric juice limited at the truth. But
gastric juice cannot transform unhealth-
full articles offered into proper nutri-
triment. There is no healthful and hap
py individual or family which daily
lives ON sour bread, poor milk and vile
butter
The dairy interest is now becoming
a vast source of material wealth. Last
year the total value of the dairy pro-
ducts of the United States, including
$50, 100000 pounds of butter and 35O,OOO,-
900 pounds of cheese, was $4OO,OOO,OOO.
According to the last statistics we have
12,5O0OOO milch cows in this country
more than three times as many as both
| Germany and France. Our dairy pro-
ducts now form a large element of our
wealth-bringing commerce. Only few
years ago OHIO began to supply New
Yoak with dairy staples. Not many
years ago it was denied that the West
could produce prime butter. Now a
! Western State has the distinction of
producing the very best butter. In 1878
we exported nearly $4,OOO,OOO in butter
and S14,1O3,52 in cheese seven times as
much butter and twice as much cheese
as in 1870. With our vast and rich pas
lures and our unlimited supply of corn,
the great West can furnish the markets
of the world with butter and cheese.
"The improvement of dairy stock at
is at this time the most important prob
| lem in the successful development of
! this great National interest. 1t has
been wisely said that he who makes two
blades of grass grow where one grew be-
fore Is ahenefactor of mankind ;;Ind he
who makes two pounds of butter or beef
out of the grass that before produced
one is creative benefactor. He does
this who replaces an inferior common
cow, of the 'pennyrOyar breed, as we
say sometimes in the West, by an AL
derney, an Ayrshire or a HOlstein. The
latter requires no more food than the
former to produce from two to four
times us much milk. Judicious crossing
of the best stratus of dairy stock devel-
opes the best qualities of both. Here is
a wide field, not only for interesting ex-
pertinent but for practical usefulness.
1t eXalts the vocation of the judicious
steck farmer from the level of mere bar
ter to the rank of public benefit. We
have in this country 19O,OOO,0OO head of
live stock. Here lie half developed
mines of National wealth richer than
the silver and gold lodes of Nevada.
The ownership of the soil places the ag
riculture of our country above that of
any other. In Great Britain one man
owns the land, another rents it, and a
third farms it. TwO-thirds of all the
land in England and Wales is owned by
1O, 200 men; two-thirds i'll Scotland by
$50, and two-thirds of Ireland by 1,940.
Nearly the whole population is thus di-
vorced from the soil. Here every one
can become an owner, and more than
half the population is engaged in agri-
culture. This is the farmers republic
But in public affairs the interests of
this great class are too little recognized.
The farmers, from their number and
great share in bearing the burdens of
taxation, are entitled to more recOgni-
eion. We will never get until we de-
mand it and stand by our claim. Par
Iiament appropriated 80 per cent more
for agricultural purposes than Congress.
Millions are voted to railroads, arsenals
and ships, while agriculture only gets
thousands. But the proposal to obtain
such such recognition or appropriations
as the needs of our agricultural indus
tries demand is met with incrdnlity and
derision; and the bare suggestion that
this immense interest should rank in |
the Cabinet, by side of the Post Office
and Navy, it is accepted in Washington
as proof of HOPELESS rural verdancy.
AS the farming class is the majority, it
should compel future legislation tc give
agriculture full rank, 1t is still in its |
infancy, for we have here the food grow
ers of the world. Last year we produ- |
ced ,137 100000 bushels of cereals with |
only 174,OOO,O0O out of our 1,50O,OOO,OOO |
acres of arabic land under cultivation |
From reports not yet published, the chief
of the Bureau informs me that for the |
three months ending September 80, 1879, |
we exported 1891 $40 pounds of fresh
beef, Il, ,654,741 pounds of butter and S.
100000 pounds of cheese. The Nations |
balance of trade comes from farm and |
factory, from shop and furnace, from the
dairies and pastures of the country.
Each year opens new markets to our
commerce. Cattle always have been,
and will be, symbols of wealth and pros
perity. Agriculture, long elevated to
the eXactness and beauty of an art, has
now become a science. Such organiza-
tions as this tend to develop this indus
try. The immense and undeveloped re-
sources of our country, in soil and mine,
the vast extent of territory, the growth
of our multitudinous industries-all at
test the possibility of wealth here be-
womb the dreams of aYaricn Rnt hniter