204 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



We are not sufficiently skilled in the process of manufacture to 

 determine whether the mode of cooking the cheese before sub- 

 jecting it to the press sends more of the butter into the whey 

 than the slower process of the dairy, but the taste of the differ- 

 ent kinds of manufacture, as well as the superior results of 

 feeding it to pork at the factory over that at the farm would 

 suggest the inquiry whether the pigs do not gain what the 

 cheeses lose. It is claimed, indeed, that cooking the whey 

 increases its nutritious qualities, and it is no doubt true, as this 

 seems to be a general law for man and beast. The cost of 

 carrying milk to the factory is no inconsiderable element, and 

 the value of the swine on a farm to keep up the replenishing 

 of the soil, will not be overlooked by those farmers who regard 

 their lands with kindly care, whose producing power is to be 

 nourished and kept good rather than to be exhausted and 

 abandoned. These various considerations will not induce an 

 abandonment of this new system of clieese-making and return 

 to the old one that exhausts and wears out the wife and mother 

 while it fills the purse and improves the lands, but will rather 

 serve as a stimulus to inquiry as to the best methods of obvi- 

 ating the objections and still continue to improve and elevate 

 the business of d§,iry farming. 



In behalf of the Committee, 



Edwin Woods. 



' HINGHAM. 



From the Report of the Committee. 



In so important a matter as butter, — no longer a mere lux- 

 ury, but a recognized agent to health, — it is indeed surprising 

 that so little interest is felt. A constituent of health it ought 

 to be regarded, and poor butter as well as poor meat be thrown 

 to the dogs. 



One of the greatest difficulties in coming to a right judgment 

 in this matter of butter is the excessive use of salt ; it fairly 

 amounts to an abuse ; in some instances, none but a tongue 

 which had been in pickle a week could bear it. If, in the 

 Dutch penal settlements, total eclipse of salt is the most griev- 

 ous punishment devised by human ingenuity, excess of it is 

 equally bad : and your chairman would respectfully suggest — 

 feeling confident of the approbation of the rest of the Committee 



