102 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the beauties of farm life, " the lowing herds," "the sweet 

 breath of kine," and the charms of the dairy m^id. . A lovely 

 little picture of milking is by an English poet, Bloomfield : — 



" Forth comes the maid and like the morning smiles. 

 The mistress, too, and followed close by Giles. 

 A friendly tripod forms their humble seat, 

 With pails bright scoured and delicately sweet. 

 The full charged udder yields its willing streams, 

 While Mary sings some lover's amorous dreams, 

 And crouching Giles, beneath a neighboring tree, 

 Tugs o'er his pail, and chants with equal glee. 

 As unambitious, too, that cheerful aid 

 The mistress yields beside her rosy maid. 

 With joy she views her plenteous, reeking store, 

 And bears a brimmer to the dairy door. 

 And now the dairy claims her choicest care. 

 And half the household find employment there. 

 Slow rolls the churn ; its load of clogging cream 

 At once foregoes its quality and name. 

 From knotty particles, first floating wide, 

 Congealing butter's dashed from side to side. 

 Streams of new milk through flowing coolers stray. 

 And snow-white curd abounds and wholesome whey." 



But at the present time the nonsense is all knocked out of 

 that poetry ; the milkmaid now is red-headed, freckled-faced, 

 wears tan-colored overalls, and her name is Patrick. The 

 conveniences for handling the milk and cream, and chiu'ning 

 and "working the butter, have been so wonderfully increased 

 as to immensely lessen the labor of the dairy. Neverthe- 

 less, no farmer should allow his wife, with all her other bur- 

 dens and cares, to churn, work and pack any large amount 

 of butter ; that should be the work of a man. The farmer 

 himself should know precisely how to do it, and when his 

 duties call him elsewhere, let him clean up a man or boy and 

 carefully instruct hiin. 



Many of the best butter makers in the State make their 

 own butter; partly from choice, to have it always right and 

 uniform, and partly from a laudable desire to case the 

 women's work ; and they are the men who take an honest 

 pride in doing it well, and who consequently get from fifty 

 to seventy-five cents a poimd for their butter. The handling 

 the milk and cream, and the product itself, in making fifty 



