336 BOARD OF AGEICULTURE. [Pul). Doc. 



from without the State. Most of this is pasteurized cream. 

 In a smaller way a still better product is produced under 

 superior sanitary conditions, such, in fact, that the cream 

 keeps readily ten or more days, and with no other treatment 

 than to keep it sufficiently cool and tightlj^ sealed. Some 

 dealers warrant such cream to keep sweet two weeks, if held 

 at or below 50° Fahrenheit. The use of bottles, in sizes 

 suited to the wants of the customer, in handling milk or 

 cream, is of great advantage : first, because standard milk 

 thus put up must still analyze to law requirements ; second, 

 because of convenience in handling ; third, milk or cream 

 put up in such manner need not be opened until ready for 

 use ; and the consumer who wants the best of milk Avill 

 never unseal a can or bottle until it is wanted, and will not 

 allow unsealed bottles of milk or cream to stand in or out 

 of a refrigerator for any considerable length of time. 



It should not be overlooked that we are onlj' a little more 

 than twenty-four hours distant from the great milk-pro- 

 ducing centre of our country, where the cost of production 

 is less than here ; and that the day has now arrived when 

 sanitarily produced cream can be shipped long distances, 

 and in such condition that it will keep sweet a week or 

 more after arrival, if properl}^ cared for. Our local cream, 

 however, prepared under like conditions, is good for some 

 hours or days longer, and our cost of transportation less. 

 Massachusetts to-day does not send beyond New England 

 and NcAV York State, except for pasteurized cream, some 

 thousands of gallons of which are brought from Iowa ; but 

 she does send considerable sums of money to her neighbors 

 for cream which keeps well, for the reasons above given, 

 and which, much of it, could be profitably produced within 

 our own borders. It seems as if Massachusetts producers 

 could get a larger share of this trade if they pushed for it. 



The chairman of the Bureau has delivered fifteen and the gen- 

 eral agent twenty-eight lectures, bearing upon dairy topics, 



during the year. 



Butter. 



There has been, according to the best reports availalile, a 

 large increase in the annual production of butter in this 

 country, — probably ten per cent and possibly more in the 



