206 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



vegetables and produce are a sample and earnest of what any 

 one, for a fair price, can purchase in open market for his daily 

 needs ? Chas. F. Shimmin, Chairman. 



BERKSHIRE. 



From the Report of the Committee. 



The importance of the dairy interest to the farmers of Berk- 

 shire, and the demand in market for a different quality of cheese, 

 seem to call for an extended report in this department. 



In noticing the report of the Boston market for the last week 

 in September, the range of prices is from five to fourteen cents 

 per pound. Taking into account the price of labor, cost of 

 living, taxes, &c., making cheese at fourteen cents per pound is 

 not considered a very profitable business for the dairyman. If 

 this is so, making cheese for five cents must be an up hill 

 business. 



Why this difference in the price of cheese ? Various causes 

 may arise to produce this result, but the main cause is in the 

 mode of manufacture. Without assuming to know all about 

 making cheese, we propose to offer a few suggestions which we 

 hope will awaken more interest, and perhaps call out discussion 

 on this important branch of agriculture. 



It is an old saying that " tastes differ," and this is particularly 

 so in regard to cheese ; but if consumers were aware what 

 produced certain tastes and odors in cheese, they would take as 

 sudden a dislike to them as a gentleman did to a certain kind 

 of sausages when they were mentioned in connection with dogs. 



At present, different markets may require different qualities 

 of cheese, but probably the time is not far distant when a more 

 uniform style and quality will be required in all our principal 

 markets. 



Within the last few years the foreign demand has largely 

 increased, and is likely to increase still more, and it is equally 

 certain that our home market will greatly improve when all 

 branches of industry are favored with continued prosperity. A 

 large proportion of the cheese made in Berkshire during the 

 last thirty years has been sent to market green, but owing to 

 the demand for cheese to export, the market has undergone a 

 change, and when consumers shall become more acquainted 



