No. 437.
Mr. Andrews to Mr. Fish.
Stockholm, February 22, 1872. (Received March 16.)
Sir: The fact that Sweden last year exported sixteen and a half million bushels of grain, forty-three thousand head of live stock, and upward of three thousand tons of butter and cheese, may be regarded as evidence of the impulse which, in later years, has been given to agriculture, stock-raising, and the dairy.
The following is a more particular statement of these exports for the year 1871, as taken from an official report.
| i.—grain. | |
| Bushels. | |
| Oats | 13,859,054 |
| Wheat | 392,975 |
| Barley | 1,833,837 |
| Rye | 426,752 |
| Total of grain | 16,512,618 |
| ii.—live-stock. | |
| Number of horses | 1,052 |
| Number of horned cattle | 14,242 |
| Number of sheep | 17,222 |
| Number of hogs | 11,378 |
| Total head of live-stock | 43,894 |
| iii.—butter and cheese. | |
| Number of tons of butter | 2,837 |
| Number of tons of cheese | 217 |
| Total tons of butter and cheese | 3,054 |
The large tracts of grazing-land in the northern part of Sweden, which as yet are but little occupied, afford room for a greatly increased development of the dairy interest. The building of the proposed railroad between Sundsvall and Throndhjem will contribute much to this object.
During the past year there was quite an increase in the number of butter-factories established by share companies. Eight such factories in counties bordering Lake Malar exported one and a half million pounds of butter in 1871.
There was recently published in the Stockholm journals an elaborate review, by Mr. Julilin Dannfelt, of this industry, with observations on the future good prospects of Sweden for supplying the English market with butter and cheese in competition with the United States and other countries.
There are two dairy-schools in Sweden: one at the Institute of Ultuna, which I have visited, and one at Berggvara. At each of them six female pupils are taught in all that belongs to the management of dairies and cattle, and pay for their instruction, board, and lodging by work. Each school receives an annual allowance from the state of 3,000 rix-dollars.
Private dairy-schools are provided by agricultural societies in two different counties without support from the government.
Besides, at thirteen well-managed dairy-farms in different parts of the kingdom, instruction in butter and cheese making is given to female pupils engaged by the special committee of the Royal Agricultural Society. Their instruction, which includes a two years’ course, is paid by a yearly allowance from the state, in all, of 2,000 rix-dollars. These pupils are maintained as other dairy-servants, but, besides practical instruction, are taught writing, orthography, and arithmetic.
It is now not uncommon, both in Sweden and Norway, to have young women take the whole care of the dairy-cattle on a farm, as well as to do the in-door work of the dairy.
Mr. James Howard, in his book on continental farming and peasantry, says a question often asked by thinking men, and one which he remembers no less a person than Mr. Gladstone to have asked, is: “What is the next great step to be taken in agriculture F Not a few persons evidently think that the next great step must always necessarily be the discovery of something new.
On the contrary, it appears to me that the answer which Sweden (she has twenty-seven agricultural schools, besides two institutes) gives to the question is: “Diffuse among the farming-class the knowledge respecting agriculture already discovered”
[Page 596]Doubtless, if agricultural societies and colleges in other countries would endeavor to give a practical solution of the inquiry, “How shall a practical knowledge of the method of making and preserving good butter be imparted to the young farming-women of the state F the quantities of rancid butter which now so frequently encumber markets would greatly diminish.
I have. &c.,