104 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



wrong, as "well as anything good in it, it is sure to be detected 

 by this test. The idea that concerning taste there is no ground 

 for argument, is stated in a familiar proverb, that " there is no 

 disputing tastes." 



Our experience, as observers and officers of an agricultural 

 society, has convinced us that this variable element of taste is 

 more conspicuous, as applied to butter, than perhaps to any 

 article in the world, unless it be wine. With butter it is a 

 matter of habit. The country grocer decides in favor of salt 

 butter, because he buys and sells firkin butter,- and his daily 

 judgment is graduated to that. A grocer, unless he has lived 

 upon a farm, or has familiarized his taste to new butter, cannot 

 appreciate new butter, or butter prepared for immediate use. 



On the other hand, a housewife who is accustomed to new 

 butter throughout the year, and likes fresh butter at that, can- 

 not generally judge of the comparative merits of first-rate firkin 

 butter, and fresh, new butter. But a considerate judge, we 

 think, can estimate them truly, by ju.dging by texture, grain, 

 hardness, absence of buttermilk, color and fragrance, as well as 

 the flavor at the moment. Good butter fresh will make good 

 butter salted ; and poor butter, fresh or salt, in balls or firkins, 

 never was good at any time. Thorough working, and the most 

 complete extraction of buttermilk, is the the first grand desid- 

 eratum with all butter. The premiums recommended by the 

 committee are annexed to the. report. The butter presented by 

 Mrs. Aretus Forbes, of Bridgewater, was better than the others, 

 to whom no premium was awarded ; but it was deficient in 

 quantity, not amounting to twenty pounds, and a gratuity of one 

 dollar is therefore recommended. 



Cheese. — Of cheese there were eleven entries ; and here your 

 committee found a difficulty which had never before suggested 

 itself. The society requires an entry of not less than fifty 

 pounds of cheese to entitle the competitor to a premium. But 

 the dairies in this county are small, and the requisite amount is 

 never made in one cheese. Accordingly there were generally 

 three cheeses presented under each entry. But their quality 

 varied more than can be expressed by any statement. If one 

 enters the best cheese, and also the poorest, and another three of 

 medium character, who can make an average of quality ? This 

 was an unsurmountable obstacle in the minds of the committee, 



