822 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



one of $20 on Apple Orchards, and several 

 smaller ones on grain, fruit, vegetables, &c. 



I obtained no statistics as to the annual 

 income of this farm, but it was said to be 

 much larger than that derived from most 

 of the other farms in this neighborhood. It 

 was remarked by an observing townsman that 

 the clear profit realized from this farm was 

 ten times as large as that from some carelessly 

 managed ones in town. 



Yet, notwithstanding Mr. Richardson^s ex- 

 ample the young men of the town are leaving 

 their old homesteads, which are gradually 

 falling into the hands of the more industrious 

 foreign population. And even now it is said 

 there are scarcely more than a dozen Ameri- 

 can farmers in this beautiful town who devote 

 their whole attention to farming. 



i\Ir. Richardson expressed regret for this 

 growing distaste for agricultural life, and 

 remarked that comparatively few of all his 

 acquaintances who engaged in other pursuits 

 had met with any marked success. w. 



S^O'W TO MAKE GOOD BUTTER. 



We copy the following judicious suggestions 

 from the Report of G. Reynolds, chairman of 

 the Committee on Butter, published in the 

 Transactions of the Middlesex, Mass., Agri- 

 cultural Society, for 1866 : — 



Whoever will take the trouble to examine 

 the "Transactions of the Middlesex Agricul- 

 tural Society" for the last ten years, must be 

 struck by the meagre character of many of 

 the reports of the Butter Committees. As a 

 usual thing, beyond the mere statement of the 

 awards, almost nothing has been hazarded 

 either in the way of criticism or suggestion. 

 Your present committee venture to step out 

 of this beaten track, and to say that they do 

 not believe that the premiums are accomplish- 

 ing the amount and especially the kind of 

 good which they ought to accomplish. And 

 they are the more emboldened to do this, when 

 they remember the great agricultural value of 

 the article which they have under considera- 

 tion. Butter, with the exception of hay and 

 possibly live stock, is the product of the farm 

 which in Massachusetts has the greatest money 

 value. In this respect it is equal or superior 

 to the corn crop, and probably worth more 

 than the oat, barley, wheat, orchard and mar- 

 ket-garden crop together. Judging from the 

 past it may be assumed that the yearly pro- 

 duct of butter in Massachusetts is from 8,000,- 

 000 to 9,000,000 lbs ; worth this year at the 

 farmer's door moi'c than $.'3,000,000, or an 

 average of about $100 to each and every farm 

 in the State. It is evident then that anytiiing 

 which tends to improve the quality or increase 

 the case and certaintj- of its production is of 

 vital importance to our farmers. Our system 

 of agricultural premiums ought to do more 

 than reward personal skill. It ought to ac- 



quaint us with the principles and methods 

 which are back of that skill, and certainly it 

 should be possible to deduce from the experi- 

 ence and practice of some dozen of the best 

 dairy-women in the county definite ideas and 

 rules about butter-making. Well, we have 

 before us the statements of the methods of 

 more than a dozen of such, and after a repeat- 

 ed and sedulous perusal of them we are unable 

 to say Avhether the beautiful specimens before 

 us came from "a pure knack" in the individu- 

 als of doing about right, or are the results of 

 wise methods faithfully followed. The diffi- 

 culty is, the requirement of the Society, as in- 

 terpreted by contributors, does not bring us 

 full and precise statements of the hows and 

 whats and whens of butter-making, from the 

 beginning to the end of the process. And 

 they, above all things, are what we need most 

 to know. Would it not be wiser to give fewer 

 and larger premiums and demand in return 

 more minute accounts ? Or else to give an 

 additional premium to whoever shouM furnish 

 at the same time excellent butter and as ex- 

 cellent a story of how it came to be so good? 



The character of the dairy-room and the 

 temperature maintained in it ; the number and 

 kind of utensils used; the time which the milk 

 is allowed to stand before skimming ; how of- 

 ten the churning takes place ; whether the 

 cream and the churn are raised to any special 

 and mutually equal temperature ; whether cold 

 water is used at any stage of the work, and if 

 so, when ; how much salt is put in, and how 

 and when ; whether the butter is worked with 

 the hands, or with a wooden spoon, or with 

 both ; the manner in which the stock is kept 

 and fed ; — these and many other things, exer- 

 cise, no doubt, an important influence upon 

 the result. And it would seem as though the 

 statements of the contributors ought to shed a 

 great deal more light on these points than they 

 do ; and that good butter-making ought to be 

 less an accidental peculiarity, and more a 

 trade, with definite rules and habits which can 

 be learned and practiced by any body. It 

 would seem as though every good dairy-woman 

 ought to have on these points not only correct 

 instincts but intelligence, and that it is the 

 work of the society to demand and to cultivate 

 this accurate intelligence. It may, indeed, be 

 said, that farming is not in any department an 

 exact science. That is true. But there is no 

 department which so nearly approaches it as 

 that of the dairy. And though your commit- 

 tee, at least the chairman thereof, disclaims 

 any profound insight into the practical details 

 of the work, yet "he guesses" and indeed has 

 it "impressed upon liis mind" that nothing 

 pays better in butter-making than to have 

 precise methods and to stick to them ; and he 

 hopes that the Society will from year to year 

 grow more and more pressingly curious in its 

 questions until it finds out what these methods 

 are. 



As to practical lessons this year ; judging 



