Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1881-12-16
NATIONAL DAIRY ASSOCIATION.


REV. L. u. HIDBARD's NOTES OF WHAT HE SAW
THERE-A LARGE AND SPIRITED MEETING
THE FRESH EGG QUEsTIoN-GooD OUTER
AND POOR cHEEsE-vERMoNT MAPLE SUGAR
TIMELY HINTS FOR EASTERN FARMERS.
CEDAR RAPIDS IA, Dec. I, 1881.
The great Dairy Convention and Fair is
over, and proved a complete su ccess, even to
the weather and hotel accommodations, and
the bores with their hobbies kindly kept
themselves at home or were awed into silence
The vendors of quack churns that would
bring" the cream in four minutes or less
were assigned positions in the exhibition
rooms where they could pirate to their hearts
content. The convention represents the
dairy and egg interests of the country, and the
latter is ono whose magnitude and capital are
little dreamed of by your Jamaica farmer who
has few dung hill fowls who, being left to
look out for themselves lay couple dozen
eggs during the summer and clay of" the
balance of the year. And right here let me
say, that if some honest man in any of your
narrow gauge towns would keep one or two
hundred hens, Light Brahmas for instance
and ship his eggs fresh every week to some
good Boston grocer or commission house, he
would soon establish areputation and find the
business profitable one. Fresh eggs, those
that are known 10 be such, always find a
ready market at good prices. But the Av-
erage farmers wife puts her hens eggs in a
pan on the pantry shelf behind the door,
during August or when the price is low, and
then carries them to the store when the price
is high and sells them for fresh eggs, while
the merchant knows they have been season.
ing at least ten weeks and while he allows
her good price for the eggs, don't forget to
have her do the same for his poor coffee"
which is half beans, and his superior" gran
ulated sugar well adulterated with marble
dust, etc. New York and Boston dealers
discussed this matter of plenty of fresh eggs
with a spirit that would have astonished some
folks in Vermont
But the great topic of course was the dairy,
first of all butter and then cheese, but if an
Iowa dairyman knows what good cheese is
and how to make it, failed to find his pro.
duct. Corn is king in Iowa, the COW is queen
and butter the princess royal, while cheese is
an adopted waif. There were nearly eight
hundred tubs of butter on exhibition, while
less than four hundred cheesos were offered
and some of those were not shown. The
theory of Iowa has been to make butter and
skinned cheese, and the result is a poor ar
ticle, of course, which the people themselves
wont cat. It is asking too much of man
who eats fine creamery butter to sandwich it
with poor cheese. And If tell your Wind
baY
don't know how to make fine butter, they
will rise up in their wrath against me. 1
have been here about ten days living at hotels,
eating with lawyers capitalists, and all sorts
of folks, and L have found only nice butter
everywhere. l have visited great deal
among Vermont farmers, mechanics, etc..
besides eating more or less butter at her ho-
tells, but l never had such run of luck" on
butter for a week as have had out here the
last few days. There were sold at public
auction at the exhibition rooms one day some
10000 pounds at prices ranging from 40 to
90 cents, averaging over IS cents think for
the entire lot reaching an aggregate sum of
$4,000, Most of it was bought by New
York and other Eastern parties. The second
day the balance of the exhibit, and some be-
sides, was sold at prices varying from 80 to
Al cents, realizing some $12, 900 for the lot.
was authorized to secure some lots if prices
were satisfactory" but what could an East
ern man do paying 40 to 40 cents for the
Eastern market. OF course this exhibition of
dairy products, dairy implements, ETC., was
great attraction, but for nearly four days the
discussions on COWS, feeding, butter making,
packing and packages, ensilage, etc, We're
alive and full of interest It is a sight worth
going several hundred miles to witness-a
wide awake discussion between the farmers
and the city commission men. Moreover,
the farmers of Iowa are wonderfully bright
lot of men. President Belknap of Boston
made special mention of their intelligence,
ready utterance clear thought and somewhat
rare ability of thinking on their feet And