pure bred Jerseys in Massachusetts, also a number of Ayrshires.
Up to 1850 all the butter and cheese of the country was made on the farms, but after that year the cheese factory came into existence, with a consequent standardizing of the product and a very large increase of the business.
The farmers commenced to study farming during this period and the fairs and agricultural societies that had been formed in the previous period were greatly increased and extended. By 1860, every state held an annual agricultural exhibition, and practically every county had its fair. These annual gatherings were not only distinguished for their horse racing and "fist and skull" pugilism, but furnished splendid opportunity for the view of new agricultural machinery, livestock and farm products, and had a powerful influence in stimulating improvements and spreading agricultural knowledge.
A wonderful period! A period in which the annual corn crop increased to almost one billion bushels, and wheat and oats were each above the 170 million bushel mark. In 1860, almost 21 million dollars' worth of agricultural implements were sold to the American farmers. The old, hard method of farming was due for the discard, and along with the new farmer and his vision of agricultural conquest came the farm hand. The Civil War closed this period and the whole country faced a readjustment of its ideas to suit the fact that the industrializing process was invading every avenue by which the people lived.
