20 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



from six to eight pounds of grain a day (amounts depending on 

 age and capacity) has been the most economical ration, more so 

 than four pounds and more so than twelve pounds, particularly 

 when we take into account the fertilizing value of that grain. In 

 this year of abnormal prices for feed, we have been inclined to 

 advise shading that, making it from five to six instead of from 

 six to eight. Some of our farmers are endeavoring to get 

 through the year without feeding any grain, but I believe this 

 is an unwise thing to do. While we might not get more than 

 just our money back, yet if no grain is fed we shall shrink those 

 cows in value and impair their future usefulness. My judgment 

 is that even in this year of high prices it is better to buy some 

 grain, of the right kind, the protein kind, and feed from five to 

 six pounds daily, if one has a good grade of cows. 



III. THE PRODUCT — MILK. 



It is still a moot point in many minds as -to what is the most 

 economical method of raising cream. In Vermont, where the 

 cow population to the square mile and to the number of human 

 inhabitants is denser than here, a large part of the trade in dairy 

 products is with the creamery where the whole milk is taken and 

 separated centrifugally. But there is an increasing use all 

 through the state of the farm centrifugal separator. Compara- 

 tively few of the deep setting systems are being sold today. 

 Many, indeed, are discarding deep setting and introducing cen- 

 trifugal separators. It is unquestionably true that a good cen- 

 trifugal separator, properly run, will get a larger proportion of 

 the fat than will any other system. The Cooley, which is a good 

 type of the deep setting system, will get most of it, indeed almost 

 all for a considerable part of the year ; but if the cows are strip- 

 ping, or if they are of the Ayrshire or Holstein breeds, giving 

 milk containing small globules of fat, there is inevitably a loss in 

 milk creamed by the deep setting system. Even the centrifugal 

 separator does not get it all under these circumstances, but it more 

 nearly gets it all than does the deep setting. I have no particular 

 interest in any of the separators, though I have tested nearly all 

 of the different makes, but I am emphatic in my belief that a 

 man who has ten cows or more can hardly afford, if he is in the 

 dairy business for his living, to use anything but the best class 

 of mechanism. Certain it is that all through the dairy districts 



