Omaha daily bee., 1899-03-20

HEARD ABOUT TOWN.

A recent report of Consul General John
L. Bittinger, who is stationed at Montreal,
was discussed by Colonel Putnam Edwards
of Champlain, N. Y, yesterday at one ca
the hotels. Colonel Edwards Is somewhat
interested in dairying, and 1t was this
feature Of the report that engaged his at
tention. Said he:
According to Consul General Bittinger
the exportation of Canadian cheese to the
United States and Great Britain has almost
doubled since 1890. while Its expectation OF
butter was almost six times as great last
year as nine years ago. In 1890 1t sent
away "a, 26O, 1877 pounds Of cheese valued at
50, 1872, PIP, and 1855, $50 pounds of butter
| valued at s340, 1S1. Last year its exports OF
these two items were 1876, 7oS, 1923 pounds of
| cheese valued at $17,572. 1863 and 11.252, 7S7
pounds Of butter valued at S2,046,S 66.
at must not be understood that any great
| proportion of this comes to the United
states. The fact Is that the state of New
York alone is the greatest competitor
Canada has. to say nothing Of the immense
amount Of dairy products contributed to
the worlds consumption every year from
the other rich and p~opulous states Of the
northern tier. Mr.. Bittinger explains this
| when he says that fully 65 per cent of the
cheese sold in the British market is sup
piled by Canada. Great Britain and ireland
have become eXtensive users Of butter and
| cheese within the last decade and Canada
| has practically become the great dairy farm
of the United Kingdom.
"Of course, our exporters suffer indirectly
the competitions; that is, we find a rival
when we go into the foreign market. but
the fact is that our producers can rely upon
the American market itself being big
enough. though we ship millions of pounds
! abroad every year to various parts of the
! world. Still, Mr.. Bittinger's report states
that there has been a decrease in United
States exports compared with Canada's ex-
ports. One thing alluded to in the in
structive contribution of Mr.. Bittinger to
commercial knowledge is his observation
upon the rigidity with which Canadian laws
in regard to dairy products are enforced. II
we had more rigid laws or better enforce
ment of those we already have in this
country our products would have a much
better reputation in foreign markets.
"a great deal of stuff is turned out in
this country and labeled butter and sent
abroad which tends to give the American
producer a bad name in other countries.
This is doubtless due to the facility with
which the immense packing industries Of
the west can turn out butterine, oleomar-
gerine and similar articles. Foreigners are
beginning to wonder If there Is any real
butter made in the United States. However
our people could do better, II they would
try, in the cheese line. Cheese is something
not SO easily initiated. All we need is to
take example OF the Canadians and be a
little more thorough and painstaking. Mr..
Bittinger gives much of the credit of
Canada's rapid advancement in d~airying to
Hon. Sydney Fisher, the present minister of
agriculture. who has been a practical farmer
for years."
Boston now has on a big agitation against
the destruction of the nests of the English
sparrow" remarked Hiram Powell of that
| city, VINO spent Sunday in Omaha. FLETCHER
Osgood Of Chelsea some time ago originated
the American Society of Bird Restorers,
and he, as the general manager of this or
| ganization, undertook to urge a crusade
against the sparrow, among the other aims
of the society, some of which are very COM
mendable. He considers the sparrow a me-
mace to American birds. But the war upon
the sparrow has reacted and a host of re-
monstrants is coming onward and vigor-
ously protesting against the peculiar meth
DDS of the sparrow crusade.
ITO quote from a paragraph Of the Os-
good circular recently published in a Bos-
| ton paper will best give an idea of the plan
pursued by him and his co-destroyers, to-
| wit: The lessening of the English sparrow
evil may perhaps be best brought about by
stimulating all residents to rid their prem
ises Of these sparrows' nests in the egg
season by poking them out with poles, and
to seek to bring about systematic effort OF
the sam general kind by cities and
towns So that you can see there was
something Of the general about Osgood in
his ideas. but, though he might have
counted upon some Of the old prejudices
supposed to be eternally felt by the Boston
man against the King George man. other
wise Yankee prejudice against anything and
everything English, still he did not take
into consideration the marvellous possibili-
ties of humane sentiment of which New
England in general and Massachusetts in
particular are capable.
william Brewster of Cambridge. tile
president Of the Audubon society, was one
OF the first to come to the defense of the
hated and doomed sparrow. But his de-
tense was more of an indirect nature than
q frank plea for the sparing of the bird. 1t
was a voice for humaneness in the method
of destruction. Mr.. Brewster's idea was to
have some authorized agent of the Society
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
supervise the process of their slaughter
after the birds had been kindly captured
during the winter season. Since the protest
against the Osgood method OF nest and egg
destruction began fully a thousand promi-
! nent citizens have gone on record as friends
of the sparrow.
The most recent proposition In the birds
behalf has come from President George 7.
Angel of the Massachusetts, Society for the