CHEESE INDUSTRY IN THE UNITED STATES There are no definite records of when or where cheese was first made in the United States, but it was probably very early in the development of colonial agriculture. Cheese-making was well tablished in European countries when the new settlers came to America, and it is evident the practices and methods they lished were those with which they were familiar in their native countries. Thus Cheddar cheese became the first variety of portance in New, England, where the English colonists settled, and Swiss cheese has since become an important variety in Wisconsin where immigrants from Switzerland established a settlement.
Originally, cheese was made only on the farm, both in Europe and in America. The earliest records indicating the growth and importance of cheese-making in America are the export statistics of 1790, in which year the New England states, New York, and Pennsylvania, exported 145,00o pounds of farm-made cheese. Farm cheese production reached its peak about 185o, when fac tory production began. It is generally believed that Jesse Wil liams of Oneida County, New York, was the first to operate under a factory system, in 1851. By 1870, the factory production of cheese made up more than half of the total cheese made. Farm cheese production gradually declined, and has almost completely disappeared.
New York was the leading cheese-producing state for a long period, but as population increased and cities grew, cheese-making declined because of the greater profitableness of the fluid milk industry. Wisconsin now makes Io times as much cheese as New York, and more than two-thirds of all the cheese made in this country. New York makes about half of the remaining third. Other states ranking well up in cheese production are Indiana, Illinois, Oregon, Minnesota, Michigan, and California. From 32 to 5 percent of the milk produced annually in the United States is made into cheese.
Many of the so-called foreign types of cheese could be made in the United States and would be made if the demand were suf ficient. Cheddar cheese is by far the most important of the hard varieties made and consumed in this country, with Swiss cheese next. Cottage cheese and cream cheese make up about a fifth of the total.
Factory production of cheese in the United States, exclusive of cottage, pot, and bakers' cheese, now totals about 621 million pounds annually, about 6 times the highest figure ever reached by cheese made on farms. The varieties made in the United States, and the production for 1935, are shown in the following table: In 188j, the United States was the largest cheese exporting country in the world, with a peak of nearly 148 million pounds that year never equalled since. Exports have gradually decreased until the amount is less than 2 million pounds annually. Seven teen countries export more cheese now than the United States. Imports of cheese into the United States reached a peak of 81 million pounds in 1928, but have since gradually declined, making this country about the fifth largest importer. The kinds of cheese imported, together with the amount, 1935, are as follows: (Pounds) Emmenthaler . . . . . . . . . . 6, Romano or Pecorino . . . . . . . . 15,814,253 Reggiano or Parmesan 2,679,569 Procoloni or Procolette 6,319,052 Roquefort . . . . . . . . . . . All other types 15,865,093 Consumption of cheese in the United States has varied from 3.8 to 4.8 pounds per capita for the last 25 years, until in when consumption reached its peak of 5.2 pounds. The comparative consumption in various countries is as follows :
