294 BOART) OF AGRICULTURE. 



medicine you make up your mind to it. Those poor fellows 

 who have to dine at the hotels and restaurants in Boston, know 

 what it is. I never touch the butter in them ; I cannot. I had 

 rather go without. Their excuse is, that it is as good as the 

 average butter in Boston ; that to get better they have to pay 

 ten or fifteen cents a pound extra. Is there not some way to 

 raise the standard of butter, so that we may have better butter 

 in the market ? 



Mr. Sturtevant. The gentleman from Hingham asked a 

 question in reference to the effect of the feed upon butter, and 

 the answer to him was, that if certain food was given half an 

 hour before milking, it affected the milk, and consequently the 

 butter ; but if fed half an hour after milking, it does not affect 

 it. That certainly is a matter of importance to everybody, be- 

 cause if we feed as he says, and that affects the butter so seri- 

 ously, that is a matter which every gentleman at this Board 

 wants to understand. It is the food that we give our cows at a 

 certain time, as I understand it, which affects the milk, and in- 

 duces bitterness in the butter, even if the utmost care is taken 

 in making the butter. 



Mr. Hubbard. I have no doubt of the truth of the remark 

 just made, that the food given to cows will affect the milk. 

 But that was not the subject on which I wished to speak. I de- 

 sire to refer to one point suggested by the essay of Mr. Ellsworth, 

 and that is, as to the time which milk should stand before the 

 cream is taken off. He said that milk standing twenty-four and 

 thirty- six hours would give different results in the quantity of 

 butter, but he said nothing about the quality. Now, I have 

 been told that cream that was taken off of milk after it had 

 stood twenty-four hours, if it was taken off separately could not 

 be churned into butter. The question has arisen in my mind 

 whether the little more cream that we got by allowing the milk 

 to stand more than twenty-four hours, was not at the expense 

 of the quality of the butter. It has been said that butter has 

 been sold from 45 cents to $1.25 a pound. If the butter made 

 from cream that is taken off in twenty-four hours is of a supe- 

 rior quality, is it not better to take it off then than to let it 

 stand twelve hours longer, although we may get a little more 

 cream, if the butter is to be of an inferior quality ? 



Mr. Ellsworth. If you disturb milk after it has stood twelve 



