36 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



him, but finds fault if it is not up to the standard every 

 time; and the dealer who supplies him, and to whom you 

 send your product, does not feel very amiable when one of 

 his best customers returns that sent him as unsatisfactory. 



It is said that only five per cent of the butter which goes 

 into market is strictly prime. Ninety-five per cent of it con- 

 sists of all grades down to what is called " grease." I have 

 seen it stated that last year there were forty thousand 

 pounds of butter sold in one of our Western cities for soap- 

 grease. 



The proportion of butter not fit for the table, and hardly 

 for cooking, is very large ; and it is said that one-third of the 

 value of all the butter made in the United States is lost by 

 deficiency in quality. A waste of from forty to sixty per 

 cent of the gross returns is a loss which no business can 

 endure. 



Of the different modes of setting, skimming, scalding, or 

 churning, or whatever may be the character of the method, 

 we shall not pretend to say which is best ; but certain things 

 are requisite in order to obtain good butter. First, good 

 cows ; second, good feed (good sweet early-cut hay and corn- 

 meal with either carrots or sugar-beets stand first in the list 

 of proper food) ; third, the utmost care and neatness in 

 every manipulation, from the cleanliness of the cow and 

 milking, to the marketing, and skill to put up in an attrac- 

 tive form and an attractive package. If the producer is not 

 able to attend to these matters, the business of butter- 

 making may as well be given up, for it will not pay. 



The exportation of butter and cheese has increased so 

 rapidly within the last few years as to alarm British pro- 

 ducers. The superiority of American cheese is an admitted 

 fact ; and the papers upon dairy subjects which have recently 

 appeared in the journal of the British Agricultural Society 

 have urged upon the British manufacturers greater care as 

 the only means by which they can retain their hold upon the 

 home market. One of the English papers says, "It is sad 

 to find that we are allowing the trade to gradually slip into 

 the hands of the Americans, and that, while they are year 

 by year increasing the quantity of their manufacture, and 

 improving its quality, we are absolutely falling behind." 



About a year since, in speaking upon the prospective 



