Durango semi-weekly herald., 1901-08-26
COWS BRING WEALTH.
William e. Curtis Writes OF the
Riches in Norway Dairy Farm
ing.

LEARDALSOEREN, Norway. July
-(William Il. Curtis in Chicago
Record Herald) saeter is a sum
mer ranch or dairy farm peculiar tc
Norway-a cabin among the pastures
away up in the mountains. where the
cattle are driven during the summer
months. and butter and cheese are
made. Almost every large farm has
saeter. When the spring field work
is done and the grass is fresh and
juicy on the hillsides the dairy maid
and the herder. and sometimes the
farmer and his whole household, call
the cattle and drive them up the steep
trails. The saeter may be ten, TWEEN
ty-five or even fifty miles distant. II
may require several days to reach II.
In such cases the cattle are kept to-
gether by the herders and dogs, and the
family camps out In the open air If
they cannot find accommodations in
the farmhouses along the trail. In
olden times it was customary to be
gin the summer pilgrimage on st.
Johns day, the 2Ith of June. or St
Hans day. as they call it here, but in
the later times people are not so par
ticular about observing dates and
signs and omens as they used to be.
The cattle remain on the mountain
side until the middle OF September
and often later, as long as their own
ers dare run the risk of an early snow
storm. Then they are rounded up
and driven back to the farm in the
results of the summers labor, are
carted down and sent to market, and
the manure. which has been care
fully preserved in the course of the
summer, is also brought home and
spread upon the fields,
The total value of the dairy pro-
ducts of Norway is about $3,50O,000
in our money. and nearly all the but
ter and cheese is made at the saeters
and on the individual farms. There
are several cooperative creameries on
the American plan, and it is estimat-
ed that they handle 250,000 gallons
of milk daily. but they are only found
in thickly settled sections of the coun-
try. Where the population is scat
tered it is not so convenient to send
the cream out of the house, and there
is a prejudice against it. The Nor
wegians are conservative and yer
stubborn about some things. When
their faith is fixed it cannot be
shaken, and the women of the farm
ing communities prefer to make their
own butter and cheese. The few
creameries are fitted up with sepa-
rators and other modern dairy ma
chinery, but the great majority of the
people still pour their milk into the
broad, shallow tubs of wood and
skim it in the old fashioned way.
Nearly all the surplus butter made
in Norway is shipped to Denmark.
The same is true of Sweden. In tha
art of butter making the Danes have
been more successful than any 9th
nation, and by reason of its superior
quality Danish butter brings a high
er price in England, which is the great
butter market of the world, than the
Denmark, therefore, has become the
foremost butter exporting country OF
the world, but considerable amount
of Danish butter is made in other coun-
tries. Her annual exports will reach
learly 200 100000 pounds, valued at
like 100000, 600 of $75,000
900. OF this total perhaps thirty
five or forty million pounds comes
from Sweden, Norway and Finland
it is taken into the packing houses at
and other cities and is
there worked over, mixed with the ma
dive Danish butter. colored with the
juice of the beet root, and as people
suppose, treated by some
secret process which gives it pecu-
liar flavor and makes it less suscepti
BILE to the effects of heat, cold and
dampness.
More than 95 per cent of the butter
shipped from Denmark is sold in Eng
land, the total reaching l56,2Ol .60l
pounds last year. The remainder OF
the Danish exports go to the tropical
You can find Danish but
Ter all over the world usually in one
pound tins, which sell for ST.. The
average export price last year was
ZIG cents "A pound.
II 10 al lIitltbllIS ldIl lHit lUt
Danes import and repack a good deal
of American butter, The imports
from the United States will average
"a million pounds annually.
Danish bacon and hams have the
same reputation as Danish butter,
Germany being the principle market
for its pork products. A good deal
OF those also are imported from Nor
way, Sweden and even the United
States and repacked and branded with
The Danish trade marks.
A good deal OF the Danish butter
comes from the Norwegian seaters,
where it is made entirely by hand
with the most primitive utensils and
processes. The saeter. or cabin has
seldom more than two rooms, one for
living and one for work. The living
room is comfortless, and rudely fur
nished like a hunting shack, with the
hunks fastened to the walls, a plain
table. 4 few dishes and two or three
hard-bottom chairs. The dairy room