l82 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



of one of my friends who would say his cows pay; how do they 

 pay? 'J'here is not one man in fifty who is physically able to 

 do what he has done, and the other forty-nine wouldn't if they 

 could. This man has got up in the morning and had twelve 

 cows to milk ; then he had hogs to feed and his other stock to 

 attend to ; he would go out into the woods and cut wood, load 

 it and haul it to market ; then back by four or five in the after- 

 noon to do his milking and so on again, and any time before 

 ten o'clock at night, if you call him on the telephone, they will 

 tell you that he has not come in from the barn yet. If that 

 man could have ten cents an hour for the extra time he has 

 worked, he would be well off today. Most of us will not work 

 like that. 



Now, I believe I was going to tell you some facts you would 

 not like to hear. A bright young man came into my neighbor- 

 hood ; he was a college graduate, a good care taker ; he started 

 in with pure bred cows and what was the result? He could 

 not get enough from these cows so he could live, and he had to 

 go. Isn't that a bad state of affairs? It is not encouraging to 

 young men, certainly. I have a boy struggling along with me, 

 trying to make things go and I want to see conditions better 

 for him and for the other boys of Maine, and some day we are 

 going to bring it about. I was accused the other day of trying 

 to start a milk trust. Most of our farmers have been a little 

 sore on trusts ; we do not like trusts, but every big business in 

 this country today is covered in some way like this and we 

 farmers, if we are going to exist, have got to come into line 

 on the same plan of co5peration work or we are going to be 

 down and out. We want the help of the creameries and we 

 ought to have it in order to help them ; they have an enormous 

 sum of money invested in creameries in Maine, and without 

 any dairy business these investments are worthless, so they 

 are interested as much as we are. 



I think you will all agree with me that Cow Test Association 

 records are valuable. My records have proved to be more 

 valuable to me and to people outside than I had any idea when 

 I had them made. When Dr. Merrill came to my town it was 

 the first I knew about cow test work. I did not think much of 

 it at first, but before he talked half an hour, I thought I could 

 benefit my condition ; that was all I thought of then and since 

 then I hope I have broadened out a bit. 



