18 BOARD OF AGRICDLTURB. 



put np with such rank, rancid stuff as they once believed they had 

 got to swaUow or swallow none. 



The standard of good butter has been greatly elevated. With 

 increased facilities for transportation, the city and village buyer has 

 been able to get a taste of butter as it comes fresh from the churn, 

 and he now demands it brought to him weekly instead of annually 

 or semi-annually, as formerly. This has created new life at the 

 farm. Many farmers have changed their summer dairies to winter 

 dairies and find an increased profit from the change, while others 

 continue the business through the entire j'ear. Butter making, 

 instead of being a rather insignificant side matter for a short period 

 in the summer, on many farms, has risen to the dignity of a manu- 

 facturing operation of high importance. When New England soil 

 was, on the average, much richer in fertility than it is to-day, and 

 when the farmers were apparently using their best efforts in the en- 

 deavor to deplete it of its tertilitv, when thev were sellino- hay and 

 potatoes and corn and oats and tobacco from their tillage land, 

 they seemed to use their dairy cows and their young cattle and 

 sheep chiefly in order to reduce their pastures also of their native 

 fertility. 



The science or art of agriculture, by whichever name we may 

 choose to call it. has taken man}' advance steps since our grand- 

 fathers first broke the soil of these New England hills. They may 

 not have known better than to take repeated crops without making 

 adequate returns to the lands they worked ; but we, their grand- 

 children, have learned better. We know now that if we would 

 leave these lands a worthy inheritance to our children we must treat 

 them In- a better method. 



In considering the question, what products it will be most desirable 

 to give our attention to, we may well take into account the cost of 

 transporting those products to market. The actual cost to a trans- 

 portation comi)any of shipping a ton of potatoes or a ton of butter to 

 Boston or New York can vary but little. Ice may be required in sum- 

 mer to keep butter fioni melting and fuel may also be needed in winter 

 to prevent potatoes from freezing. If the railroads take Aour freight 

 and guarantee its safety while in their possession it may be perfectly 

 right to charge a higher rate per ton than would be asked for carrj'- 

 ing less valuable freight ; but if rates are based on weight or bulk 

 alone, you will see that the shipper of butter or cheese has a great 

 advantage over him who sends hay or potatoes to market. I do not 



