270 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



Barrc cheese has a character, if we may so speak, that affects 

 its value in the market to a great extent, and no doubt cheese 

 from this vicinity, or with the name even of Barre cheese, sells 

 higher in the market on that account. 



Now as we have said, this reputation is public property of 

 great value, and ought to be cared for and increased by public 

 and private effort. 



Deservedly high as this reputation stands, it is not what it 

 ought to be, and what it should be made to be. For be it 

 understood, this reputation is not that of the best dairies of 

 New Braintree, but that of an average of all the cheese made 

 in this part of the country and sent to market as cheese from 

 Worcester West. What then would be its name and its fame 

 if the standard of its excellence was that of the best cheese 

 offered here for premium to-day ? What an increased value 

 would it give to the whole production. 



It is a fact well known by our merchants and cheese dealers, 

 that the good has to help sell the bad, so that in fact every 

 cheese producer is interested in the production of every other 

 individual with whose product his own may be associated in 

 the market. What then can be done to improve the general 

 quality of cheese in the towns associated in this society ? 

 Your committee are sorry they have not the time or ability to 

 present a dissertation on the art of cheese making, which would 

 be valuable to the public. Such a treatise must come, if 

 needed, from abler hands. 



One thing needed in the community, is a proper standard of 

 excellence in cheese. Many who manufacture cheese largely 

 do not know what constitutes a good article. They are 

 acquainted only with their own production, and do not know 

 but what the general shape and color of a cheese is all that is 

 necessary in its manufacture. On this point, your committee 

 would suggest whether it might not be well for the society to 

 purchase and distribute at the table or in the hall of exhibition 

 specimens of the cheese considered worthy of premium, and 

 thus furnish a standard, or what is a standard in the opinion of 

 your committee, of good cheese. 



With this information, it would seem that every one interested 

 w r ould be led to inquire what they do, or what they neglect to 

 do, that varies their cheese from this standard. 



Freeman Walker, Chairman. 



