56 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Mr. Bowditch says he does not know anything about milk, 

 and I sympathize with him fully. I do not want to be asked* 

 anything about butter or milk, because I do not know any- 

 thing about it. Within three weeks I have lost money on 

 three churuings of butter that I sent to Boston, that I 

 thouo-ht I was makinor from the best kind of feed. I was 

 feediug green barley, sown late in the summer, and cut, 

 nearly all of it, before heading out, and before the ground 

 froze and the snow covered the last of it. I fed that to my 

 cows rather more freely than I usually feed them on rich 

 green feed, and I found that my butter was not as good, but 

 I did not think the trouble was caused by the barley. I had 

 fed barley in the summer and in the spring, and I had fed it 

 as late as I did this year; but for some reason (and I am 

 inclined to think I must attribute it to the bailey, owing, 

 perhaps, to some peculiar condition that I do not fully 

 understand), my butter was below average quality, and 

 although I increased the quantity about twenty-five per 

 cent, by that feeding, I lost in the price returned just about 

 enough to balance it. But I went Ijack again from good 

 green barley, as I thought, to cured corn-stalks and shorts, 

 which Mr. Bowditch objects to, and the quality of my but- 

 ter went up again. 



Now, as to the price. The retail price of my butter is 

 seventy-five cents per pound. I am below Mr. Bowditch 

 now. He has honors above me in this, that he can sell, at 

 present, four times the quantity for eighty cents a pound 

 that I can for seventy-five cents. 



Mr. BoAVDiTCH. Was not that barley frosted? Had you 

 not had a severe frost on it? 



Mr. Cheever. It was frost-bitten, and I should attribute 

 it to that, only that last year I fed frosted barley, frozen 

 more than this was, and had no complaint. I am unable to 

 determine what the trouble was. AVith my accidents, suc- 

 cesses and want of success, I do not feel that I know any- 

 thino; about making^ butter or feediu": cattle. I am feeding 

 linseed meal now instead of cotton seed, because it happens 

 to be cheaper. It is the " old process " meal. 



Secretary Russell. Did you ever feed any of the '' new 

 process " meal ? 



