bridge, "calves raised for other purposes than veal, should be early 

 weaned from the dam ; and nursed at least one year upon food, 

 adapted to give firmness and expansion of muscle, rather than to fat- 

 ten them." The observation of another farmer, a plain man, but one 

 of the most observing and practical farmers in the state, is deserving 

 of attention. "One of the most important points, says he, in the 

 feeding of the calf, is to feed him well when the grass first fails in the 

 fall by frost. If suffered to fall off then he does not recover, and 

 suffers more by scanty food than other animals." I shall subjoin in 

 the appendix a letter, with which I am honored, from an intelligent 

 farmer of much experience in J3raintree, on this subject of raising 

 calves, which deserves particular attention. * 



6. Quality and Management of Dairy Produce. — The 

 quality of the dairy produce in Berkshire County perhaps deserves 

 remark. Much of the butter is very good. I ate little however that 

 could be pronounced of the very first quality. This is always a rar- 

 ity and cannot be expected but with peculiar pains-taking. It is im- 

 possible to convince our people of this, excepting where they have 

 sometimes tasted butter with that peculiar richness and deliciousness 

 of flavor, which I know not how to describe, but by comparing it to 

 the richness of the odour of a new blown rose, with all the dew drops 

 glittering among its leaves. I have tasted such butter several times 

 in Massachusetts ; and therefore am certain it can be made ; and I know 

 that such butter would always command almost any price in the mar- 

 ket. Something is in the cows. The milk of different cows is 

 known to have very different tastes, and therefore it must have other 

 different properties. Much is in the feed. It is well known that 

 June butter, when the pastures are in all their luxuriance, and Sep- 

 tember butter, when the cows are turned upon the after-math, are 

 generally of a superior quality to that made at other seasons. But I 

 believe from the best observation I can make, it depends more than 

 any thing else upon perfect cleanliness, a pure atmosphere in the milk- 

 room ; and especially upon the freshness of the cream, being taken 

 early from the milk, and churned soon after being taken off. The 

 salting too is of much moment ; but the medicaments of saltpetre 



* Appendix D. 



