Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1883-04-12
Expectation OF Dairy Products Cues.
tiOnabla.

The lamentations which are OCCASION
ally heard in regard to the small amount
of butter exported, evidently come from
parties who fail to comprehend the true
bearing of the situation.
The simple reason why we export sc
little butter is because the market at
home is better than the markets abroad.
The price of butter in Boston, New
York and Philadelphia, and also in this
city, is habitualiy higher for choice
grades than In London, Liverpool, Glas-
gov, or the large cities of continental
Europe. Our own cities and large VII
lagos furnish for our dairy farmers the
best butter market in the world. For
low grades of butter the situation is diff
ferent. The distinction in price be-
tween different grades is generally con-
siderably less in Great Britain and Con-
tinental Europe than it is here. If we
are unfortunate enough to have butter
which is not first-class. we can often do
better with it abroad than at home. Our
people are the greatest butter eaters in
the world, consuming fifteen pounds
per capita annually.
We have a much larger class of WELL
to do citizens who are able to CRAFTY
their preferences in regard to the butter
they eat than exists in the monarchical
countries of Europe, and they do not
hesitate to pay high prices for Whist
pleases them, and to reject whatever
does not suit so well. Hence, grades of
butter which fall below first-class occa-
sionally accumulate and find better
market with the laboring classes abroad
than they do at home; and this kind of
butter is what constitutes the bulk of
our small exports of that article. The
English market is open for foreign but
ter, land would take large share of what
we make if we should choose to send it
there. The only reason why we do not
send more than we do is because our
own consumers bid higher for it than
the consumers in England and other
countries. 1t is not, as is sometimes in
simulated, because our butter is inferior
and is not wanted abroad, nor because
we can not make it cheap enough to
enable US to compete in the English
markets and live as we'll as those who
now furnish those markets with fine
butter. The superior grades of butter
made in the United States are unsur-
passed in quality by any of the Euro
pean nations, and the vast extent of
cheap and well-watered lands in their
northern half enable producers to turn
it out at a cost below what it is possible
to do on the costly lands of Europe.
the American producer of the first
class butter is happy and prosperous
man compared with his European rival,
for he can produce his goods at less
cost and sell for a higher price. Nor is
his situation spasmodic one, which is
likely to suffer great or sudden changes.
The long time which he has enjoyed this
position affords strong presumption
of its continuance, for he has enjoyed it
ter of century, but he has stronger
reason for security in his position from
the equally prosperous condition of
other agricultural industries. The
American farmer has a versatility of
talent, and is far from being fixed or
rigid in his habits. If he could do better
by one line of farming than another, he
can oscillate from one to another with
ease, and without annoyance or friction.
If the production of butter, or wool, or
meat, or grain, or any kind of stock
would yield better returns than other
branches of farming, he would be sure
to lean to the most profitable one, till
an excess of production would bring it
to level with the rest. The fact that
the production of butter, which, is known
to be highly profitable when properly
carried on, does not attract votaries
enough to crowd prices lower, is an evil
dence that other lines of farming in this
country pay quite as well as butter pro-
duction, and in this fact, butter pro-
ducers have the strongest guarantee that
the present status of their industry will
neither change widely nor suddenly. If
the present producers of meat, for ex-
ample, could make more by producing
butter, they would not hesitate to change
from meat to butter; but the fact that
larger number do not make the change
is proof that they are doing as well in
the business they are occupied with.
Some situations are better suited to
producing meat, others to producing
grain, and others for butter, etc.
The unappropriated plains of the
West and Northwest are better suited to
producing beef than butter. When they
come to be divided into small farms,
tillage will pay better than beef, and
when they have become worn by much
plowing, dairying brings the best
returns, but dairying would be out of
place before the plains have been sub
dued by the pillow, because the foul weeds
which abound on them would vitiate the
flavor of mix, and injure its pro-
ducts. Particular products may do best
in special localities, but the extent of
country in which the various farm pro-
ducts can be produced is SO large, that
no one can long hold monopolizing
position. This gives security to all our
agricultural industries, and allows each
farmer with safety to gravitate towards
the business for which his farm is best
adapted. For these reasons, we say to
all who have FERNS better adapted to
dairying than to other modes of farm
ing, that there is no occupation which
is more likely to prove remunerative
and lasting, no matter how many may
engage in it, or whether there is or is
not a foreign outlet for dairy products,
and, it may be added, without any fear