PRODUCTS OF THE DAIRY. 263 



NORFOLK. 



From the Report of the Committee. 



The duty of the present committee on dairy is confined to 

 a consideration of the two articles of butter and cheese, of 

 which specimens may be exhibited, — several subjects which 

 might receive attention under the general head of Dairy being 

 very properly assigned to special committees, as those on " milch 

 cows," on improving "old pasture lands," (very important,) on 

 "food for cattle," "soiling," &c. ; and the committee for the 

 State's premium on dairy. 



Of the value of butter and cheese, as articles of food, and 

 their economical importance in the management of farms, your 

 committee need not speak. It is desirable that growhig atten- 

 tion Ijc given to them by American farmers, care being taken to 

 produce those of the best quality, whether for the foreign or 

 domestic market. No American farmer should be satisfied till 

 he can produce butter and cheese which will bear comparison 

 with the best product of foreign lands. 



Butter has been known from a remote, though not tlie remot- 

 est, period of antiquity. The Jews do not appear to have been 

 acquainted with it, at least in its solid and concrete state. It 

 is true the term occurs several times (ten, we believe) in our 

 English common version of the Old Testament. But the best 

 critics now pronounce the translation erroneous. In recent 

 critical versions the Hebrew word is translated "milk," — thick 

 milk or cream, perhaps. Thus, Job xxix. 6 : " When I washed 

 my steps in milk," instead of "butter." Again, in the cele- 

 brated passage, Isa. vii. 14, "Milk and honey shall he eat," 

 instead of " butter and honey." Some may fancy that they find 

 express mention of butter in Prov. xxx. 33, in king James' 

 version, "Surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter." 

 But the translation, "the pressing of the milker bringeth forth 

 milk," certainly comports better with what follows, " the wring- 

 ing of the nose bringeth forth blood." One distinguished critic 

 renders the line thus: "the pressing of milk brings forth 

 cheese," more likely than "butter." 



The Greeks and Romans were not originally acquainted with 



