BUTTER, GOOD AND BAD. 73 



THE BUTTER DAIRY. 

 HAMPSHIRE, FRANKLIN, AND HAMPDEN. 



[From the Keport of the Committee.] 



The past year has been . one of discouragement to butter- 

 makers. The prices of dairy-products have been lower than 

 for thirty years before, often netting less than a . cent and a 

 half a quart for the milk produced ; so that very few cows 

 have paid for their keeping. Still those whose butter has 

 held a first-class reputation have been able to keep up their 

 price to twenty-five or thirty cents a pound. This autumn 

 the prospect is better. A good article of butter or cheese 

 brings a fair price. But it is plain enough that the only 

 safety for dairy-farmers in this section lies in closer manage- 

 ment. To get any profit from making butter, it is necessary, 

 first to increase the quantity from the same number of cows, 

 and, second, to raise the quality, so as to command the high- 

 est market-price. 



Between the cow and the butter-maker there is a point 

 which cannot be too carefully guarded, — the way in which 

 the milk is drawn from the cow, and handled before it 

 reaches the milk-room. A very large part of the poor 

 butter made results from the milk being spoiled before it is 

 even strained. One lot of butter examined at the fair by 

 your committee showed this at once : it was not fit for any 

 use as food. Some, on tasting it, would have said, " Animal 

 odor." Perhaps so, but not from the cow. If the cow is 

 healthy, and has good food and pure water, there can be no 

 odor or taste to the milk in the udder at all objectionable ; 

 nor will there be, if the milk is then drawn from a well- 

 cleaned udder by a clean milker, in pure air, and kept away 

 from all sources of taint. Others would have said this 

 butter was " cowy." Don't lay such a charge to the poor 



