FEEDING FOR BUTTER. 55 



jrentleman told me within a week that he received thirty-six 

 cents a pound for the last lot of butter. 



Mr. BowDiTCH. It was probaljly much better manufac- 

 tured than some of the butter that is sent down to Boston 

 from other places. There is a great difference in the manu- 

 facture of butter. 



Secretary Russell. What do you call a good price for 

 butter ? 



Mr. BowDiTcn. Thirty cents. 



The Chairman. Mr. A. W. Cheever, of the " New Eng- 

 land Farmer," advocates feeding corn fodder to milch cows. 

 He keeps milch cows and makes butter. I would like to 

 have him tell us how he does it. 



Mr. Cheever. You have been questioning Mr. Bowditch 

 about how he makes his butter, and he has told you as 

 frankly as he can. He has told you why he cannot feed 

 certain kinds of food. It is because his buyer, his commis- 

 sion man, if I may call him so, detects any change in the 

 feed he gives his cows, and tells him he had better go back 

 again. Now you should remember that there is no such 

 thing as a standard best butter, any more than a standard 

 best man, or best horse, or best anything. Mr. Bowditch's 

 butter suits, perhaps, a hundred customers in Boston better 

 than any butter they can get. They have become accus- 

 tomed to its taste ; they like it, and they are willing to pay 

 eighty cents a pound for that kind of butter. Now, on the 

 other hand, I have made butter from different food from 

 what Mr. Bowditch feeds. It has gone to the same market, 

 and (I do not say it in a boasting way) my butter, for some 

 years, at its retail i)rice, was sold five cents above his. And 

 yet I feed shorts, I feed cotton seed, I feed corn-stalks, and I 

 feed hay that is not always the best. Now, the explanation 

 is this. My customers, somehow or other, have got used to 

 butter made on my feed, like it, and are willing to pay for 

 it, and th;it is all there is to it. 



Now, do not go away from the hall feeling, every one of 

 you, that you must not, on any account, feed cotton-seed 

 meal to your own cows, because Mr. Bowditch cannot, and 

 he will not, say that you should have that feeling. 



There is a good deal to be learned about butter and milk. 



