378 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



one of the most marked and convincing proofs of the progress 

 we have steadily made in our agriculture in the past forty 

 years. Our cows also have increased in ten years nearly 

 14,000. 



What proportion of this milk is sold, consumed on the 

 farms, or made into butter and cheese, there are no figures to 

 tell with any accuracy, nor can any calculation be made ; 

 but in 1845 we made $1,116,709 worth of butter, then worth 

 15 cents per pound, and of cheese $398,174 worth, at 5 cents 

 per pound. In 1875 we churned butter to the amount of 

 $2,747,848, at 35 cents per pound ; and of cheese we made 

 to the amount of $405,293, at 13 cents per pound. 



While the statistics show a gross increase of our dairy- 

 products, in forty years, of several millions of dollars, it is 

 impossible, as above mentioned, to state it with exactness, or 

 to apportion the whole product of milk between that sold 

 and what is made into butter and cheese, as some of the 

 earlier returns indefinitely divide tliem ; others simply give 

 them all in gross as dairy-products, or merely the number of 

 pounds of butter and cheese, without values, and with no 

 mention of the milk. Our own last census of 1875, most com- 

 plete in all other matters, is unfortunately deficient in not 

 giving the amount of milk sold, nor how much is made into 

 butter and cheese. 



[n 1845 the gross amount of dairy-products is given as . . ^1,819,800 



In 1855 the same is 2,598,664 



In 1865 (during the war) it is 4,091,462 



In 1875 the whole amount of milk is .... . 5,934,671 



But the butter and cheese were made from this milk. Call- 

 ing three gallons of milk for a pound of butter, and one 

 gallon for a pound of cheese, we find left, in 1875, 10,651,144 

 gallons to sell, and that the cows of that year gave an average, 

 through the State, of about 1,200 quarts each ; while, by 

 the same rule, the cows of 1865 averaged about 700 quarts, 

 and the cows of 1855 about 800. 



The largest milk-producing counties are Worcester, Berk- 

 shire, Middlesex, and then those counties having in or about 

 them cities or largo towns which consume great quantities 

 of that necessary fluid. 



The largest butter-making counties are Worcester, Frank- 

 lin, and Berkshire, which produce more than half the butter 

 made in the State. 



