128 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Question. I would ask Mr. Arnold if he does not con- 

 sider the tops of any root-crop worse in regard to flavoring 

 milk than the root itself? 



Mr. Arnold. That is usually the case. The top of almost 

 every plant has more flavor than the root. That is not 

 exactly true of the onion, but it is generally true. 



Mr. Ellsworth, of Barre. I would like to say a word on 

 this subject. I have been making lump butter, for some four 

 years, for market, and it has the reputation of being very 

 good butter. I have practised raising roots of all kinds, and 

 feeding them to my stock, for making butter. I have fed 

 forty bushels a day of English turnips, tops and all, and 

 made butter that went to Mr. Hovey, in Boston, and was 

 sold, probably, to as good a set of customers as most of them, 

 and I never heard any complaint that my butter tasted of 

 turnips. This last year, I have sent my butter to Worcester, 

 and it has been consumed in as good families as there are 

 there, and when my cows were eating forty bushels of turnips 

 a day, tops and all ; I have never heard from that source a 

 word of complaint, that my butter tasted of the root. But I 

 shall hereafter watch carefully that Mr. Hyde does not get a 

 taste of my butter, if I want to keep on telling the same 

 story. I do not undertake to say that the flavor cannot be 

 detected by the most delicate and acute taste, but I do not 

 want any gentleman who is making milk or butter for market 

 to be discouraged from raising roots, because I do not think 

 there are enough of that class of people to make any trouble. 

 It may be detected by a few, but the number will be so small 

 that that fact ought not to discourage any man from raising 

 roots for dairy stock. 



Adjourned. 



THIRD DAY. 



The Board met at ten o'clock, Hon. J. F. C. Hyde in the 

 Chair. 



The first subject on the programme was the " Breeding and 

 Management of Swine," and the discussion was opened by a 

 paper on 



