The Minneapolis journal., 1901-10-03
THE POETIC LITTLE "SAETERJENTA"
How She Herds the Norwegian Cattle the Mountains and Makes
Cheese That Is Sometimes Violent and Aggressive

In an article from Norway dated Laer-
dalsoeren, July 16, in the Chicago Record
Herald, William e. Curtis says:
Asaeter is summer ranch or dairy farm
peculiar to Norway-a cabin among the
pastures way up in the mountains, where
the cattle are driven during the summer
months and butter and cheese are made.
Almost every large farmer has saeter.
When the spring field work at home has
been finished 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 I'D the steep trails. The saeter
may be ten or twenty-five or even fifty
miles distant. 1t may require several
days to reach 1t. In such cases the cattle
are kept together 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 1t was customary to begin the sum-
oath of June, or St. Hans day, as they call
1T here, but In these latter times people
are not so particular 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 owners dare
run the risk of an early snowstorm. Then
they are rounded UP and driven back to
the farm in the valley. The butter and
cheese, the results of the seasons labor,
are carted down and sent to market, and
the manure, which has been carefully pre-
served in the course of the summer, is
also brought home and spread upon the
fields.
The total value of the dairy products of
Norway is about $500, 900 in our money
and nearly all of the butter and cheese is
made at the saeters and on the individual
farms. There are several cooperative
creameries on the American plan, and it is
estimated that they handle $50 900 gallons
of milk daily, but they are only found. in
thickly, settled sections Of the country.
Where the population is scattered 1t is not
SO convenient to send the cream out of the
house, and there is a prejudice against
1t. The Norwegians are conservative and
very stubborn about some things, When
their faith is fixed 1t cannot be shaken.
and the women of the farming communi-
ties prefer 10 make their own butter and
cheese. The few creameries are fitted up
with seDarators and other modern dairy
machinery, but the great majority Of the
people still pour their milk into 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 the art of
butter making the Danes have been more
successful than any other nation. and by
reason OF its superior quality Danish but
ter commands higher price in England,
which Is the great butter market Of the
world, than the best grades offered by
other countries. Denmark, therefore has
become the foremost butter exporting
country of the world, but a considerable
amount Of Danish butter is made in other
countries. Her annual exports will reach
nearly 200, 900, 900 pounds, valued at some
thing like $60,000,000 or SIS, 900 ,OOO or
this total perhaps S5, 600 or 40 ,O00. 900
pounds come from Sweden, Norway and
Finland. 1t IS taken into the packing
houses at Copenhagen and other cities
and there worked over, mixed with the
native Danish butter, colored with the
Juice Of the beet root, and, as people gen
orally suppose, treated by some secret
process, which gives it peculiar flavor
and makes it less susceptible to the effects
Of heat, cold and dampness.
More than 50 per cent of the butter
SHIPPED from Denmark is sold in England,
the total reaching 6.201, ,601 pounds last
year. The remainder of the Danish ex-
ports go to the tropical countries You
can find Danish butter all over the world,
usually in one-pound tins, which sell for
81. The average export price at Copen-
hagen last year was PIG cents pound.
1t is an interesting fact that the Danes
import and repack a good deal of Ameri-
can butter. The imports from the United
States will average a million pounds an
nually.
Danish bacon and hams have the same
reputation as Danish butter, Germany be-
ing the principal market for its pork
products. good deal of those also are
imported from Norway, Sweden and even
from the United States and repacked and
branded with Danish trade marks.
A good deal of Danish butter comes
from the Norwegian saeters. 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 furnished like a hunting shack,
with hunks fastened to the walls, plain
table, a few dishes and two or three hard
bottom chairs. The dairyroom is usually
sixteen or twenty feet square; big fire.
place on one side with an iron kettle
hanging from a chain for the preparation
Of cheese, and the other three walls lined
with shelves upon which little shallow
tubs of milk are placed for the cream to
rise. Tin pans are never used in saeters
and are seldom seen in Norwegian farm
houses. The women prefer wooden YES.
sells bound with brass hoops which shine,
like FURNISHED gold. When Norwegian
housewife cannot think of anything else
to do, she scrubs her milk tubs.
The saeter is inclosed with fence, which
makes a sort of corral into which the cat
tie are herded at night, unless, as at some
of the larger establishments, two herders
are employed, when they are allowed to
Craze out continually the herdswomen or.
herdsmen being relieved every twelve