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or the production of milk, butter and cheese, is the mosl 

 important, and must occupy the very first position in the 

 farming of the future. 



With an abundance of the purest water gushing from 

 almost every hillside, and the short, sweet grass that may 

 be had in profusion if farmers will take care of their pas- 

 tures, and, more than all else, markets at our very doors, 

 it seems as though the farmers of the old Bay State ought 

 at least to supply the larger part of the 10,000,000 pounds 

 of butter that are annually furnished us by other States 

 of the Union. 



Within a very few years, some people have discovered 

 that butter does not improve with age ; that it is never 

 better than when it first comes from the churn ; that but- 

 ter made and consumed in midwinter is much better and 

 has a much finer aroma, if it is properly made, than that 

 made in the preceding June or September and consumed 

 after it has been kept for months. This education of the 

 sense of taste is progressing, and hence the demand for 

 "gilt edge" butter is increasing. 



The facilities afforded by improved machinery are such 

 that the farmer, by the outlay of a few hundred dollars, 

 can entirely relieve the good wife from the cares and hard 

 work incident to the manufacture of butter by the old- 

 fashioned method of the shallow pan system, if that can be 

 called a system which was so uncertain in its results. 



The paramount importance of dairying to the farmers 

 of this county being conceded, it seems as though milch 

 cows are as deserving of consideration, to say the least, as 

 the "gentleman's driving horse," or the lank nag whose 

 record of two twenty and seven-eighths causes her owner 

 to swell with pride. The owners of horses would refuse 

 to bring their stock to our fairs for exhibition, and very 

 properly, unless covered pens were provided. On the 



