Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1873-02-14

tiles and conveniences for making the very
best butter, but all can improve in greater
or less degree Let those dairymen who are
now making good article that sells from
twenty-five to thirty cents pound, try and
aspire TO make still better article that will |
command the price of forty or 6fty cents
pound, and this in many cases can be done
with but but very little extra expenditure
and let those who have been making lower
grade of butter, and selling at from fifteen to
twenty cents a pound, look about themselves
and find out where the trouble is, and what
can be done to mend the matter, and perhaps |
the result will be in the very next trial they |
will succeed in making an article that will
command twenty-five or thirty cents pound.
And all this and more can be accomplished
by using a little care and painstaking.
Now suppose a dairyman keeps twenty |
cows that will make thirty hundred pounds
of butter a year, aud he raises the standard
of his butter ten cents on pound, it will
make an addition to his income Of three hun
dred dollars in one year, now will not this
sum richly compensate him for little care
aud all other extra expenses incurred Is
not the entire community interested then ?
firmly believe that no branch of industry
in Vermont is open to so wide field for i'm
provement, or one in which improvement is
so positively demanded. A few figures will
reveal to us this fact In the year 1872,
there was shipped from the railroad station
at st. Abans alone, 3,476,S72 pounds Of
butter. Now, if by care and skill the quail
ty of this butter could be so improved as to
command FIVE cents on pound more, we can
readily see that the sum Of the difference is
S173,94360. Is that not something worth
striving for? But the advance in price is
not the only chance for Improvement. If by
good management the number Of pounds
could be increased ten per cent, it would
add BAT ,6S7 pounds, which at thirty cents
per pound would amount to SlO4 ,3O6. 10.
Add the two sums together, and we have the
sum Of S2SS, ,249.70, clear gain to the terri
tory which finds an outlet at that station
alone Now is this advance attainableY |
certainly think it is.
But the great trouble is we lack system
in this business. There are almost as many
ways of making butter as there are dairy
men. Each thinks himself in the right, and
is content to plod along in the old way. But
what we most need is associated effort, and
it is well for Us to meet on occasions like
this aud interchange views, and impart to
one another the results OF our experiments
that all may be mutually benefited thereby.
| cannot better express my views on the sub
ject than by quoting the words Of l.. b. Ar
mold, of Ithaca, N. Y, in an article on cheese
making in connection with butter making he
says; Among butter makers very little is
settled, they are at loggerheads on almost
everything. The temperature at which
cream rises best, seems to be but little re-
garded and is known to but few the best
depth for setting milk is argued all the way
from one inch to twenty. The number who
know Just when is the best time for skim
ming milk is very small the time, tempera-
ture, and manner of churning, the effect of
churning sweet or sour, and whether it is
better to churn the whole milk, or only the
cream, are questions in dispute. These dit-
ferences grow out of the habit of working
privately and alone, where each sees or
knows little else than his own experiences
Improvements move slow, when they 60 sim
gle handed Rapid progress in all the affairs
of life comes from learning Of each other.
Differences in butter making could be as
readily reduced as in cheese making by
comparison Of results. And this is as ! un-
derstand it one Of the objects Of this meeting,
to compare notes and learn Of one another
the best modes of farming, and hope this
question will be discussed in all its different
bearings and that we shall hear something
new and instructive from this honorable
Board of Agriculture, who have deigned to
hold a meeting in our midst, and also from
these farmers present, who have come here
for the purpose of giving us the benefit Of
their experience. And that each one Of us
may go away from this meeting with full
determination to try and raise the standard
of butter in this part of the state Of Ver-
mont.
And we firmly believe that this is the only
thing that will save US from unsuccessful
competition with the great Western states,
which are now sending to our eastern mar
kets an article which compares favorably,
with our common grades of butter. If we
succeed in this, then Vermont, though she be
trayersed from length to breadth by rugged
mountains, and is deprived of some of the
natural advantages of other states, will event
ually take the highest rank in one Of the
great industrial interests of the country.