Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 February 1880 — Western Competition. [ARTICLE]

Western Competition.

Nearly all parts of the farmingworld are frightened at the prospects of Western competition. Not *only all Europe bnt the Eastern States of this Union acknowledge sorrowfully that it is useless to struggle in competition with the main articles produced in the Mississippi valley. Mr. Gladstone, in his recent speech at WestCaldez, Eng., tells the British farmers some plain truths on this subject. He says the struggle of the English farmer is not a struggle with all of the United States, .but rather with the Western portion of the States; the portion remote from the seaboard. He comforts his people by telling them the competition is more keenly felt in the Eastern half of the United States than it is in England. The English farmer, he thinks, need not expect relief in reciprocity and protective tariffs, but rather upon a more diversified agriculture; the cultivation of superior articles on a small scale; the cultivation of vegetables, of flowers, of fruits of every kind—articles, in fact, which rise above the ordinary character of farming production and rather approach that of the garden. More attention, he thinks, will nave to be given to the growing of a variety pf objects which are sure to find a market in a rich and wealthy country like England. The Eastern dairymen of the Middle and Eastern States are also seriously inquiring what they shall do in the future. The Eastern press is especially exercised on the subject. They have been of late awakened by finding Western goods taking premiums in their own markets over their own productions. Nor is this all. They find the Western article called for and preferred in the markets. The notion that good dairying can only be successfully conducted in the New England States" or the valleys of New York, New Jersey or PennS 1 vania, has to be abandoned. And e truth is now seriously impressed on them that the great West and North-' west are successful competitors in dairy products as well as in grains and beeves. Thik leaves them nothing except their nearness to market. They plainly see, in the fact that the dairy and beef feeding lands of the West are of almost unlimited extent, and that the capacity of their productions is not a tenth developed, the matter of successful competiion is pres cnted as one of serious import. They do not, however, recommend their farmers, like the British, to turn their attention to “fruits and flowers,” but appeal to their dairymen for “ a more diversified dairy product in order to promote home consumption; and certain delicacies of the dairy, such as clotted cream, various kinds of soft cream cheeses, will give the East some advantage in manufacture by reason of its nearness to the sea-board cities, where such goods enter into quick consumption. An effort should be made in all possible ways to promote the consumption of dairy goods at home. Dailymen must not lopk so errttMflvely to the great cities and foreign markets for the disposal of their products, but strive to promote consumption of these goods in the interior. There are hundreds of villages and towns in the interior where large quantities of cheese, of cream in a variety of preparations, would find quick sale at good prices. But all these must be in attractive form and of a quality that will whet the appetite, and induce people to have it constantly on the table. This is the province of the Eastern dairyman, who has a good nrnrket almost at his own door, if he Hm enterprise enough to occupy it.” The New York American Dairyman recommends just what we have insisted for years should be done by dairymen.

It Bp.y* that during the past summer whea nwkMt faatoßg nh fmb vm Mfring at five to six cents per pound for export, retafien in thein tenor towns of the dairy .districts were selling imported Neufchatel cheese at the rate ot six to eight shillings the pound, and it certainly appeared to be a wicked neglect on the part of dairymen to allow their own markets to be so occupied. Grocers in the interior say they could sell large quantities of small cheese if of good quality; but it is impossible to obtain a supply, because they are seldom made at the factories, the run being on styles for export.— lowa State Register.