The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1898-02-03
DAIRY AND POULTRY z.
INTERESTING CHAPTERS FOR
OUR RURAL READERS.
How successful Farmers Operate This
Department OF the Farm-A Few
Hints AS to the Care of Live Stock
and Poultry.
A Brittany Butter Farm.

One nears so much nowadays, writes
a correspondent of the Globe eng
iand) OF the excellence of foreign but
ter, and of the inferiority of the home
product, that it may perhaps be inter-
estlng to get an insight into the sur
roundlngs of one of our many Compel,
ltors IN the manufacture of this useful
article. 1t is true that Brittany by no
means stands first on the roll of for
elgn manufacture. So much so, in fact,
mat great deal of it's butter is sent
10 Denmark to be reshipped thence to
England, and so come into the English
market under the prestige which right
~ attaches to the Danish product. This,
however, is by the way. The fact re-
mains that large quantity of Breton
butter goes direct to England, and Is
sold as such on its own merits. Those
VINO use it are prepared to maintain it's
superiority over that made at home.
Let us take a glance at the Breton
FARMER and his surroundings, and see
II this be so. Take almost any high
road in Brittany-very excellent they
are, too-and you will soon arrive at
green lane leading out of it.. A most
picturesque lane it will be. Possibly it
Will lead between high banks, thickly
studded with pollard oaks, beneath
which the swine will be greedily
munching acorns, and an old woman
IN a white cap and a blue dress will
be herding solitary COW, or flock of
geese, or mixed crew consisting of a
COW, sheep, and a couple of geese,
ana, as matter of course, she will be
knitting busily. Or it may lead down
an avenue of chestnuts, whose fruit is
common property, and you will see two
or three women, and twice as many
children, stamping the nuts out of
their prickly covering with their wood
en- sabots. The chestnuts form a val
uaDle addition to the peasants homely
rare OF bouillon, black bread, and the
inferior potatoes. The best are given
to the pets of the family-the pigs, to-
VIII. This plain fare is washed down
with copious draughts of cider, tea and
coHee, being luxuries which smack too
much of extravaganza to the thrift-lov-
Ing peasant 1t is not too much to say
that saving is the one absorbing pas
sion OF the women, and only rivalled
in the men by their love of strong
drink. The lane will debouch into an
open field, where the men will, suppos-
ing it to be October, be seen shaking
down the fruit from the apple trees,
and the shout which may possibly greet
your arrival will be, not tribute to
you, but in honor of their having lust
finished tree. On these occasions the
cider mug goes round, as, indeed, it will
on beginning the next. AS there are
many trees on every farm, and farms
on every hand as we'll, Bacchanalian
festival appears to be in progress, what
with the continual shouting and cheer
Ing lone farm answering another) and
the state OF drunkenness which prevails
everywhere.
But let us enter the house itself. and
see the actual surroundings in which
the Brittany butter has it's origin. Here
you Will find no cool, clearly dairy; on
the contrary, there is a mud floor of the
d1rtlest description, sometimes with
puddles of water standing on it. You
go into room, which, from it's table
scattered with unwashed cups and plat
tiers, from it's array Of cupboards (some-
times OF priceless oak), from it's "close"
beds which line the wall, Is evidently
the living and sleeping room of the
family" Here, from an oak chest, YOU
will see Madame, in the whitest of cans
IN strange contrast to her surroundings.
take several terra-cotta- colored earth
enware bowls full of milk These she
will skim, and then she will pour the
skim milk into tub for the pigs. If
you watch closely you will see fair
quantity Of black dirt dribble out of the
bowl with the last cupful of milk. She
will then churn \the cream in a churn
shaped something like a bottle with
stick in it, which works up and down.
But perhaps the most disgusting feat
ure Of the performance is that, instead
OF wetting her finger with water when
she is making up the butter, she moist
ems them with her tongue. This is an
eradlcable item in Breton butter-mak
ing. People have tried in their own
houses to make their "bonnes" use wa
ter, but unless the mistress actually
stands over her servant the latter will
at once return to the old familiar habit.
The butter, when made, is of good
flavor and color, and is palpable enough
to those who are unacquainted with it's
manufacture. Near Quimperli there is
a lalterie, or dairy, where everything is
done on improved modern principles,
and the proprietor asks and actually
obtains three francs a pound for the
article he produces. This, in country
where butter fetches from half-a-franc
to one franc at the ordinary farms,
speaks volumes for the estimation in
which common cleanliness is held. and
how extremely rare it is The better
class of residents in Brittany will not
drink bought milk on account of the
dirty habits of the peasants who pro-
vide it. When the sanitary arrange
ments on English farms, the cleanli-
ness which prevails, and the inspection
OF dairies is taken into consideration
1t seems strange that anyone can prefer
using foreign butter to that made at
home. For the consumer knows alb
solutely nothing, as rule, of the con-
dataons under which the foreign article
Is produced. whereas he can be toler-
ably sure that every possible precau-
lion is taken in his own country to en-