JERSEY CATTLE. 113 



wheat, a powerful rival had in some way arisen ; but that 

 any attack could or would be made upon his butter business 

 was never by him a moment admitted ; and so nine out of 

 ten of our farmers jogged along, making butter in the most 

 filthy and careless and unsystematic ways, wasting their own 

 time and money and also that of their customers. Fortu- 

 nately two rivals soon appeared : western factory butter and 

 •eastern oleomargarine. In regard to the former, cheap corn 

 and co-operation have triumphed over "dairy belts" and 

 thoroughbred stock ; and now in Boston and New York 

 markets the best western brands stand at the front of all 

 packed butters. If not any better than the best of our 

 packed butter, the western is more uniform and more abund- 

 ant, and could be sold at a profit at yet lower prices. In 

 regard to the oleomargarine, the skill and energy and sys- 

 tematized efforts of manufacturers have triumphed over 

 intense prejudice and determined opposition and are now 

 driving all of the low grades of butter out of our borders. 

 I am not acquainted with this substitute for butter, but I can 

 readily believe that it is more attractive in appearance, more 

 agreeable to the taste and vastly more wholesome than the 

 " cheap and nasty" butter it is now successfully driving out 

 of the markets. From at least two points of view we should 

 welcome oleomargarine : first, because it provides the poorer 

 classes with a cheap form of food ; and second, because it 

 will make it absolutely necessary to produce good butter or 

 give up butter making, and the community will be the gainer 

 in either event. If, then, poor butter is driven out by oleo- 

 margarine and the better butter finds a formidable rival in that 

 from western creameries, what shall we do with our splendid 

 upland pastures, our rich mowings, our clear streams? I an- 

 swer : use them for the production of the hest butter. Poor 

 butter, even if it sells, entails a positive loss upon the maker. 

 The better class of packed butter hardly makes b(jth ends 

 meet. It is only in the manufacture oi fresh print, or roll, 

 butter of the very be^t quality that the dairymen of Massachu- 

 setts can do justice to their farms and secure for themselves 

 <a profitable occupation. 



Let us enquire into the nature of this " fresh print or roll 

 butter of the very best quality." 



