404 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Of bread of all kinds there were fifty-eight entries, much 

 of it looking very palatable. 



There were twenty-four entries of butter, looking well, 

 and some as fine in appearance and taste as would be found 

 anywhere. 



There were four entries of fair-looking small cheeses. 



The Vineyard, in the last census year, 1879, produced 

 705 lbs. of cheese; in 1875, — perhaps by some mistake of 

 the assessors, — only 70 lbs., and that from Chilmark. In 

 1850 and in 1855 they made over 4,000 lbs. Strange as this 

 decline seems, from that to 705 lbs., it is only one per cent, 

 greater than that in the great cheese-producing county of 

 Berkshire, and in the State at large, — on the farms. But 

 in the State, the cheese factories produced a third more than 

 double all that was made in home dairies, and there is no 

 factory in Dukes County. 



There were 22,782 lbs. of butter made on the island in 

 1879, 15,000 in 1875, 14,000 in 1870, 14,700 in 1865, 

 18,000 in 18G0, 28,000 in 1855, 23,000 in 1850, and 20,000 

 in 1845. In 1879 they sold 45,896 gallons of milk ; no price 

 given. In 1875 they made 78,347 gallons, valued at 22 |c. 

 per gallon, as against 17c. for the rest of the State. Unfor- 

 tunately, our census for that year is deficient in not discrim- 

 inating between the milk sold and that made into butter and 

 cheese. In 1870 they are reported as selling 8,565 gallons, 

 and in 1865, 16,189 gallons. 



Apparently the cows of the island do not come up to the 

 standard of those of the State at large, which averages 1,183 

 quarts to a cow, while that of Dukes County is only 570 

 quarts by the census of 1875, and 670 by the census of 1879. 



The vegetables were very good, — cabbages, squashes, 

 and various turnips, — while the potatoes could not be sur- 

 passed in quality. The apples and some other fruits were 

 uncommonly good, considering the very dry season which 

 everywhere prevailed. 



Cranberries, eleven entries in number, were of two vari- 

 eties, the large, light-colored, bell-shaped, and the small, 

 round, dark-red kind, more solid and more valuable than 

 the larger and handsomer ones. It seems to me that this 

 should be a much larger crop on the island than it is. There 



