Farm and Factory: Agricultural Production Strategies and the Cheese and Butter Industry

Published archaeological data from the Columbus Center Cheese Factory, combined with newly analyzed federal agricultural census data for the Town of Columbus, Chenango County, New York, illuminate changing agricultural production strategies. During the second half of the 19th century, farmers in central New York State shifted from sheep raising, grain agriculture, and household production of cheese and butter to the raising of forage crops and production of fluid milk for local cheese and butter factories. The analysis reveals a close, but not perfect, relationship between farm and factory—a relationship with implications for archaeological variability among late-19th-century farmsteads.