226 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



service, — to bring to your exhibition the required product of 

 your dairies which entitles you to the society's premium, and 

 if your work is most worthy you will secure the highest ; but 

 if not, bring it, that you may thus testify to the worthiness of 

 your occupation and your interest in the society's welfare. 



But in examining the statements of the several contributors 

 we must confess that we were somewhat disappointed in the 

 meagreness of the information they contained regarding the 

 entire process the author pursued to secure generally such 

 excellent results. Now, when good butter is the exception 

 and that ordinary and poor is the rule, we believe it is of 

 some consequence, both to producer and consumer, to know 

 exactly how these results are accomplished ; for it is a matter 

 of prime importance, and one all ought to know, whether good 

 butter is the inherent merit of the cow, her food, or the manner 

 it is produced and the care it receives. With only two excep- 

 tions, no mention is made of the class or breed of cows from 

 which the butter was made, and these were native. In none 

 is any allusion made to the quality of the food fed to the cows, 

 whether they were kept in old dry pasture, or in rich fall feed, 

 or soiled ; whether they had meal or not ; in fact all that related 

 to the keeping of the cows was left in profound ignorance. This 

 ought not so to have been. The mode of feeding, we believe, 

 has much to do in determining the quality of the product, and 

 should be included* in the statement, as well as the breed of the 

 cow. For if one breed is better than another for butter pur- 

 poses the farmer ought to know it, and make the selection ; for, 

 at the price which a really good article of butter commands, 

 they cannot afford to keep an ordinary cow, when a good one 

 from the same food will increase his profits from fifty to seventy- 

 five per cent. So, too, if it is in the keeping, and not the cow, 

 he ought to know it, that he may govern himself accordingly 

 and so reap the legitimate results of his labor. And in these 

 statements all this information should be given ; hence the 

 statement should include all that is necessary to be known of 

 the entire process from beginning to end of this useful art, that 

 others may profit by their neighbors' experience. And we hope 

 that this course will be adopted in the future by the govern- 

 ment of the society, so that it may not only secure a larger 



