304 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



see that there is a vacant space between the two boxes, some- 

 thing like a three square. I had two galvanized iron boxes 

 made, three square, or nearly so, that just fit into that cavity, 

 and these are filled with broken ice, about the size of a hen's 

 egg. These boxes are filled with ice, the butter put in, and the 

 cover screwed down tight, about six o'clock in the morning, in 

 hot weather. I meet the express train at West Brookfield at 

 twenty minutes before eight, and my butter gets to the stall of 

 Mr. Hovey at half-past eleven. Mr. Hovey says that two-thirds 

 of the ice is in the boxes, and the butter, I have been told, is 

 apparently as hard as when it started. I think if there had 

 been a cross road direct to Salem, the Doctor could have got a 

 little taste of my butter just as good as at home. 



Dr. Loring. That is delivered where ? 



Mr. Ellsworth. To Mr. Hovey, in Faneuil Hall market. 



Dr. Loring. Suppose the consumer lives at the South End ? 



Mr. Ellsworth. I am not responsible for it after it gets into 

 a middleman's hands. 



Dr. Loring. There is where the difficulty comes in. 



Mr. Ellsworth. The butter in that way comes into market 

 perfectly sweet and fresh as it starts from home. I think any 

 one can send butter in that way. 



Mr. Goodman, of Lenox. This subject, it seems to me, is a 

 very important one. I merely want to sum up a few ideas on 

 the subject. I think my friend Dr. Loring states it rather too 

 strongly when he says that all the bad qualities of the Jersey 

 butter that comes to this market are owing to its having been 

 transported. I have no doubt that butter is somewhat injured 

 by transportation, and perhaps Jersey butter a little more than 

 other kinds, through its richness, but I do not believe that is the 

 main difficulty with Jersey butter or any butter. The great 

 difficulty, it appears to me, is in butter making, and if this essay 

 of Mr. Ellsworth could be distributed all through the country, 

 among the farmers, we should get a great deal better butter than 

 we do now. It is just as it is with bread-making. You cannot 

 go into any family, even in New England, and find throughout 

 the year uniformly good bread ; and if you go West or South, 

 you find it very bad. It is not because they have not good ma- 

 terials, but because there is no uniform system of making it. 

 In Europe it is reduced to a system, so that it is always good. 



