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REPORT ON DAIRY. 



The duty of the present Committee on " Dahy," is confined to 

 a consideration of the two articles of butter and cheese, of wliich 

 specimens may be exhibited, — several subjects, which might re- 

 ceive attention under the general head of Dairy, being very pro- 

 perly assigned to special committees, as those on " Milch Cows," 

 on improving " Old Pasture Lands" (very important), on " Food 

 for Cattle," " Soiling," &c. ; and the Committee for the State's 

 premium on Dairy. 



Of the value of butter and cheese, as articles of food, and their 

 economical importance in the management of farms, your Commit- 

 tee need not speak. It is desirable that growing attention be 

 given to them by American farmers, care being taken to produce 

 those of the best quality, whether for the foreign or domestic mar- 

 ket. No American farmer should be satisfied, till he can produce 

 butter and cheese Avhich will bear comparison with the best product 

 of foreign lands. 



Butter has been known from a remote, though not the remotest 

 period of antiquity. The Jews do not appear to have been ac- 

 quainted with it, at least in its solid and concrete state. It is 

 true, the term occurs several times (ten, we believe,) in our Eng- 

 hsh common version of the Old Testament. But the best critics 

 now pronounce the translation erroneous. In recent critical ver- 

 sions the Hebrew word is translated " milk " — thick milk or cream, 

 perhaps. Thus, Job xxix. 6 : " When I washed my steps in milk," 

 instead of " butter." Again, in the celebrated passage, Isa. vii. 14, 

 " Milk and honey shall he eat," instead of " butter and honey." 

 Some may fancy that they find express mention of butter in Pro- 

 verbs XXX. 33 — in King James's version, " Surely the churning 

 of milk bringeth forth butter." But the translation — " The press- 

 ing of the milker bringeth forth milk," certainly comports better 

 Avith what follows — " the wringing of the nose bringeth forth blood." 

 One distinguished critic renders the line thus : " the pressing of 

 milk brings forth cheese," more likely than " butter." 



'i'hc Greeks and Romans were not originally acquainted with 

 butter. The Greeks derived a knowledge of it from the Scyth- 

 ians, or Thracians, and the Romans from the Germans. Milk and 



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