The Price of Convenience in the White River Valley

A correspondent of the Tacoma Ledger writes: There is a well-appointed cheese factory in White River Valley on the river bank, twenty miles from Seattle and twenty-two or thereabouts from Tacoma. The building is complete, and neatly finished inside and out. The factory has now run for four years or more. Hundreds of tons of cheese have been made there, and at a profit to the owners. The quality was the very best full cream cheese; its price the highest, and its market the briskest of any offered. And yet this factory is likely to remain closed, we are told, for the want of a supply of milk. Not that there is not a supply of milk in the near vicinity, but because the farmers can do better. The value of land is too great, the facilities for shipping from that locality too convenient to admit of farmers wishing to remain. Steamers will carry hay to Seattle for two dollars per ton. Milk has sold for one cent per pound delivered at the factory. The cheese makers say they will not pay more. The farmers say they can do better, and to them it is a chore to milk to keep one of the cheese vats full.