DAIRY INTERESTS. 7 



are the favorite companions of man, and the welcome inmates 

 of the household. Dogs are held by the courts to be prop- 

 erty : a farmer must recognize that fact, though the licensed 

 animal may stand before him stained with the blood of the 

 ruined flock. If a dog is valuable property, and useful and 

 profitable to the community, why should he be licensed? 

 We do not take out a license to keep a bull or a boar, often 

 savage and dangerous animals : regarding them as property, 

 we pay taxes upon their value, and become responsible for 

 their actions. Dogs should not be accorded an immunity- 

 that is not asked for any other domestic animal. 



Nor does it follow that judicious legislation in this matter 

 would reduce the number of useful dogs. On the contrary, 

 it would have a tendency to cause the substitution of honest, 

 valuable animals for the worthless brutes that now infest 

 our villages. 



The dairy interest, measured by the assessors' returns, has 

 made no increase during the past year. This falling-off may 

 be explained in various ways. One reason is, that milk-pro- 

 ducers, dealing with middlemen, who monopolize the business 

 of Boston, do not realize remunerative prices for milk ; but 

 the chief cause may be found in the fear that oleomargarine 

 and other artificial butters would seriously interfere with the 

 domestic manufacture. 



The past season has proved that the reduction of the herds 

 has been a sad miscalculation ; for, though low-quality butter 

 is still the largest part of our production, and is sold at prices 

 regulated by the oleomargarine factories, good butter is scarce 

 at unprecedented prices. 



The manufacture of spurious butter from animal fats, 

 instead of exercising a disastrous effect upon the market, 

 has been a real advantage : it has only competed with poor 

 butter ; and many families, suspicious of all low-priced but- 

 ter, and unable to distinguish the difference in grease, have 

 become purchasers of the better qualities. This is a notable 

 cause of the steady advance in prices. 



If farmers were more alive to the great advantage of deal- 

 ing directly with consumers, they would find that many fami- 

 lies can readily be induced to make contracts for butter by 

 the year, knowing it to come direct from the farm. Such 

 customers are of a class that consume generously, and pay 

 full prices. 



