Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1877-08-01

It's pfO1tS. we nave nOuSnL our lilTul du
paid for it by farming alone,and, of course
we know what it means to economist, an
to earn the loaf before it is eaten. Butte
making has been chosen as the leading
business of the farm on account of tn
character of the soil, the advantages o
markets, and our own individual tastes
We have studied it for more than twent!
years, with the one purpose of excellins
tomorrow the work of to-day, and there
has not been a year, nor scarcely a month
in which some improvement has not beer
made in one or more of the various meth
DDS or conditions connected with the bust
ness. And vet we are well aware tina
many dairymen would consider us open tC
the charge of fogyism, for we do moi
breed blooded nor thoroughbred stock
according to the common acceptation o.
those terms. We have used no patent pans
for setting milk, nor patent machines for
cooling or heating it. Our milk room has
neither running water nor marble floors
and however convenient it might be, IN
ice chest or refrigerator has never yet
been introduced upon the premises. ON
milk and cream utensils are Of plain tin,
the butter worker is n simple maple board,
with an oak lever for pressing out the
milk, and the churn, the only patented
implement in the dairy. is IL plain, oblong
square pine box. without crank or float.
And yet, with all this lack Of modern con-
veniences and patent utensils, we may
claim to have had fair success with our
products in the open market. Our coun-
try market, which we held for many years,
obtaining prices above any other producer,
was the best country market we ever
knew, and was only abandoned because
the demand for that grade of butter which
we sought to make was TOO limited for our
increasing business.
However much people may talk of the
great demand of goods of superior excel
lence, it is fact, nevertheless, that every
market is limited as to its requirements.
Every market can use Il certain amount OF
product at remunerative prices, but if an
extra quantity is forced upon it, prices
must fall, and if the pressure is continued
they may 90 below the cost of production.
Our present market is Boston, and it can
dispose of more butter of all grades than
Il small country town. But Boston, like
every other market in the world, may be
over supplied, and when this happens,
prices tumble. AS partial reply TO the
first letter, quoted above, in which prices
for butter are named at from seventy-five
cents to dollar and quarter per pound
we would say that we believe dairymen in
the country have been grossly deceived re-
garding the demand for high priced butter
in the city markets. 1t is true that butter
has been sold in Boston and New York at
prices exceeding dollar pound, but the
quantity sold at these prices had been SO
enthusiastically small that the advice OF
those agricultural writers or lecturers who
have held up these prices us being within
the reach of all, if they would but make
first,class butter, has been lamentably de-
ceptive and annoying, both to producers
and dealers.
Boston is not city filled with fools who
have more money than they know what to
do with, neither is New York or Philadel-
phia. There are more rich people, as there
are more poor ones, in large city than in
small village, but the general character
OF the population of both city and village
is not so very unlike rs some may suppose
Human nature is the same, the world
over. Very few people will, as u rule
long pay more for II thing than they be-
lieve it is actually worth, and butter buy
ers are no exception to this rule. People
often say to us, II suppose your butteris sold
ut the big hotels where prices are of no
particular account" 1t is not sold ut
hotels, nor are there any in Boston, or
other cities either, where prices are of mo
account" Hotel keeping. like other bust.
ness, is carried on for its profits, and not
to make a market for farm products ut ex-
travagant prices. The best hotels in our
large cities use some choice butter, when
they can obtain it, but where one pound
goes into their kitchen at dollar pound
nifty or hundred pounds follow it at
twenty-five or thirty cents Il pound Hotel
Keepers like to know where their butter is
coming from each week. and if they can
ma responsible dairyman who will agree
to furnish them the amount Of good butter
required, and always of n uniformly good
quality, they will close bargain with him
III Preference to depending upon the fluc-
tuatlng market, from day to day, for their
supply. the New York hotel keeper who
Is reported to have made standing offer
OF Sixty cents per dozen for three hundred
dozen fresh eggs, daily, by the year, did
not make that offer because he had money
TO throw away, but because he wished TO
be sure of steady supply Of perfect
eggs at all times, and would sooner pay
mat price than TO be uncertain ola supply.
hose butter makers who supply the best
fancy demand in our cities are not only
expected to carry in an article that is al
most absolutely perfect in itself, but they
must carry it in uniform quantities at all
seasons, and, what is still worse, the guam.
titles must he comparatively small. There
are two or three diaries which find II
market for their butter in Boston, at prices
ranging from one dollar to one dollar and
II quarter pound, but these are retail
prices, and the quantity thus sold by each
is exceedingly small indeed, being less
than fifty pounds week in the flush of
production, and at other times often falling
to twenty pounds, and even less. At one
time, the one dollar and q quarter butter,
of which there was so much talk, found
customers for but six or eight pounds per
week. This limited sale is not because of
variable or inferior quality, but because
there are so very few buyers Of butter at
those extreme prices"