^^£iJlCAN HERD-BOOli 



DEVOTED TO 

 AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE, AND RURAL AND DOMESTIC AFFAIRS. 



Perfect Agriculture is the true foundation of all trade and industry. — Liebio. 



Vol. VIII — No. 8.] 



3rd mo. (March) 15th, 1844. 



[Whole No. 110. 



PDBLISHED MONTHLY, 



BY JOSIAH TATUM, 



EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR, 



No. 50 North Fourth Street, 



PHILADELPHIA. 



Price one dollar per year. — For conditions see last page. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Better Butter. 



" Let her boast of hydrant streams, 

 And like a Granny Grumble sputter, 



'Bout better peaches, richer creams. 

 And better bread, and better butter." 



Does the editor of the Cabinet recollect 

 a controversy carried on in doggerel rhyme 

 through the papers, some quarter of a cen- 

 tury since, on the comparative merits of the 

 rival cities. New York and Philadelphia, by 

 their respective champions'? I trow not, for 

 he was young then, and we have abundant 

 evidence that weightier matters have occu- 

 pied his attention since. Well, the above 

 is an extract from one of these effusions by 

 the New Yorker, and is pertinent only, as 

 it shows that even her opponents admitted, 

 by implication at "least, that Philadelphia 

 was supplied at that day, with better bread 

 and better butter, than her neighbour ; — the 

 Nickerbocker admits that his "little sister 

 Phil," then possessed both of a quality su- 

 perior to his own. We may well query, ifj 



Cab.— Vol. VIII.— No. 8. 



as much would be granted now, or, could be 

 fairly claimed for our butter. New York, 

 for instance, annually supplies the chief sea- 

 ports east of her, with a large portion of 

 their butter for the six winter months — it is 

 not all of equal excellence, but that from 

 Dutchess county, I can testify from having 

 used it many years, is, much of it, of very 

 superior quality — it is made during the grass 

 season, and up to the ensuing midsummer 

 retains all the richness, and nearly all the 

 sweetness, of good fresh made grass butter. 

 What county in the interior of Pennsylva- 

 nia, can boast of such a product] With 

 a soil and climate at least equal to that of 

 her neighbour, we rarely see a firkin of but- 

 ter from this source that would bear inspec- 

 tion, that is fit, when produced in market, 

 for the table; or, if perchance it have some 

 good qualities, the want of packing, and the 

 presence of butter-milk, soon destroy them. 

 These remarks apply only to butter from 

 the interior, with which our market is so 

 abundantly supplied each alitumn, and for 

 which the producer ordinarily realizes no 

 more than six to ten cents per pound, when 

 delivered in market. The consequence of 

 this state of things is, for a considerable part 

 of the year our tables are furnished with 

 winter made butter, necessarily inferior in 

 quality, yet at a pretty high price. Now what 

 we want, it is just what is greatly to the 

 interest of the farmer to supply, an article 

 produced from grass during the summer and 

 fall months, well cured, and well packed in 



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