DAIRY AND SEED »IMPROVEMEKT MEETINGS. 22.5 



ciate in the most remote degree its interest in the New England 

 Dairy problem. Until now there has been a supply of dairy 

 products, especially milk and cream, made in New England ade- 

 quate to supply New England needs. Under past conditions 

 the supply has decreased while the demand has increased until 

 the point of meeting has almost been reached. Now the public 

 is waking up slowly to the fact that it has an interest in main- 

 taining a supply of an essential article of food. City life as 

 well as farming is concerned in the cow problem. 



At the suggestion and request of the New England ^Nlilk Pro- 

 ducers' Association, various agencies, notably the Boston Cham- 

 ber of Commerce, have undertaken to gather information rela- 

 tive to this matter throughout New England. 



Agencies of recent origin, such as Cow Test Associations, the 

 County Agent system and others have appeared among us, 

 through whom we have placed some of the leaks that we knevv^ 

 existed in our farm economy. The most prominent has been 

 the boarder cow. There are cows that have paid well with 

 their product for their keep. Such cows are, however, com- 

 paratively few and valuable. Were we to reduce the cows of 

 Maine to those who at past prices have paid their board, the 

 exodus would be startling. But gradually that is being and 

 must be done. No class of men can long maintain a losing 

 business. It will inevitably bankrupt them. They must quit 

 or go broke — and then they quit anyhow. Non-paying cows 

 have eaten up Maine timber lots and other sources of income 

 without farmers knowing it. Gradually, as he has found out, 

 the farmer has quit keeping those cows. Hundreds of Maine 

 farms are not today keeping enough cows to maintain the soil 

 fertility. Such farms must decrease in production, grow less 

 and less valuable and ultimately be abandoned for dairying. 



The trouble has been that the average, and much better than 

 the average dairy cow in New England has not paid her board. 



Is it the fault of the cow? If so we might replace her with 

 a better one. To some extent it is her fault. We have kept 

 too many poor cows. We might have had better ones if proper 

 care and business principles had been practiced. But it would 

 be of little use to get a better one unless we know that her 

 product would sell for as much or more than that of the one 



