300 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



found in almost every breed we know of. That the Jersey 

 cows make a pound of butter from less milk than any other 

 cow, except the Devon, I have no doubt. I think the Devon 

 and the Jersey carry with their milk more of the butteraceous 

 quality than any other class of animals we have. But the diffi- 

 culty to which Mr. Hyde alludes, with regard to Jersey butter, 

 grows out of the fact that it is so loaded with butteraceous mat- 

 ter that it is difficult to transport it. You will find a great 

 many hotel-keepers, in various parts of this State, who complain 

 of Jersey butter, which would be admirable could it be eaten 

 upon the farm where it is made, but which, before it reaches 

 the market, is utterly worthless. They complain that it will 

 not keep as long as other butter will. 



That brings me to the great point in this butter question — 

 the difficulty in transportation. If Mr. Hyde lived upon a farm, 

 and had a good, intelligent butter-making woman, or wife, or 

 daughter, who understood exactly the old-fashioned mode of 

 making butter, and it was taken from the dairy room to his table, 

 he would find no fault with it ; he would not know any differ- 

 ence between Orange County butter and Berkshire or Worcester 

 County butter. If he could eat it in the place where it is 

 made, — if it is made with care, so as not to absorb any noxious 

 gases, or any of the odors that gather around a stable or cellar, 

 (for butter absorbs everything with the utmost rapidity), he 

 would find no difficulty in getting good butter. The difficulty 

 is in transporting from one place to another. I know from ex- 

 perience that Mr. Ellsworth has good butter on his table. I 

 know that before cheese factories came into vogue, he had good 

 cheese on his table ; how it is now, I won't undertake to say. 

 But if a box of his butter were brought from Barre to Salem, and 

 he should try it there, he would never recognize it as his own. 

 I think it is hardly possible to get a firkin of butter fifty miles 

 from the country, in the heat of summer, for instance, and have 

 it come out exactly as it was when it started. The process of 

 transportation, the agitation of carrying it from one place to 

 another, the effect of changes of temperature upon it, the heat 

 of summer and the cold of winter, the effect of placing it in a 

 freight car, one or all of these causes have deteriorated its qual- 

 ity. Have we not heard, in old times, when we had no rail- 

 roads, often with a sort of sneer, about " store butter " ? The 



