60 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



to ascertain just what it is that gives value to that article. 

 I make butter sometimes. I am making butter to-day for 

 the Secretarj' of the State Board. Well, if there is a man in 

 this world who ought to know what good butter is, he is 

 the man. Now, I do not want to boast any more than 

 these other men, but he told me the other da}^ that I made 

 him some of the best butter that he ever tasted. That but- 

 ter Avas made from common feed. I have made butter from 

 almost any feed, and I think that w^e can make pretty good 

 butter if we take care of certain other things. Although I 

 know there is a difference in the feed, I don't believe there 

 is anything better than corn meal and early-cut hay ; but I 

 believe you can make good butter from cotton-sef'd meal, 

 fed in small quantities. I don't think you can feed three or 

 four quarts and make good butter or have a good cow long. 

 I have never gfot so much milk or so much butter from a 

 given quantity of feed as when I fed cotton-seed meal, in a 

 proper manner, combined with the other things. I think 

 that with roots, with shorts, with corn meal, and good early- 

 cut hay, you can make good butter. 



Now, the gentleman in front of us has told us how^ he can 

 make good butter, and he has frankly told us how he can 

 make poor butter, and he does it by feeding certain things. 

 I know he can. I believe you can feed a certain quantity of 

 turnips, 3^ou can feed a certain quantity of cabbage, and you 

 can make good butter, but you cannot feed either of those 

 to a great extent, and you have got to be careful how you 

 feed them and when you feed them. 



But to come back to the price of butter. Mr. Sessions 

 has described, I think, just how this matter is. A man has 

 got to establish his reputation. Mr. Bowditch and Mr. 

 Cheever have got up to seventy-five and eighty cents a 

 pound. Now, I have got up to only thirty-eight cents. I 

 do not chaige my friend, the Secretary, but thirty-eight 

 cents for the best kind of butter, as he acknowledges. I 

 suppose he ordinarily makes his own l)utter, bnt he has been 

 so unfortunate as not to make his butter last. I suppose he 

 is sorry, and I certainly am, not that he bought butter from 

 me, but that he would not pay me eighty cents ; that is why 

 I am sorry'. I would like to ask Mr. Bowditch if his taste 



