14 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



Some few years ago the secretary of the Vermont State Board 

 of Agriculture wrote me at the beginning of the institute season, 

 asking what matter I wished to discuss at the institutes that year. 

 Among other topics I gave him a somewhat novel one, — Proverbs 

 2j, 23 : "Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks and 

 look well to thy herds." In the Book of Books the proposition 

 is laid down that it is worth while to know the character of the 

 machines that the dairymen and herdsmen use. There is no 

 record in the Bible, so far as T have been able to observe, of 

 Solomon or Job weighing milk or testing it, and there was 

 excuse for those old time Israelitic dairymen keeping poor cows. 

 Our forefathers may be forgiven that sin, but we can plead no 

 valid excuse today if we milk inferior animals. We read of 

 Pharaoh's lean and Pharaoh's fat kine, and we know what hap- 

 pened to them and what would have been the result had not 

 Pharaoh had Egypt's purse to draw upon for deficiencies. Now 

 there are lean kine in Maine, as there are in every state and coun- 

 try the world over, and lean pocketbooks because of lean kine. If 

 I, or others before me or after me, can show how unprofitable 

 animals may be detected with surety and without excessive cost 

 or labor, the scheme is surely well worthy consideration. At 

 least one-fourth of the cows in the state of Vermont do not pay 

 their way. Such cows are "cow boarders." We hear the rela- 

 tive merits of the Jersey, the Guernsey, the Ayrshire and the 

 Holstein discussed, each having its advocates. More important, 

 however, than the choice between breeds is the choice to be made 

 between cows that eat more than they make and cows that make 

 more than they eat. Too many farmers keep the former class, 

 and a long pedigree is no insurance policy against a cow's belong- 

 ing to it. The question for every dairyman to ask himself is, 

 Have I any cows of this first named class, cows that eat more 

 than they make? If he has, let him dispose of them to the 

 butcher or to his enemy. Any price is a good price for them, 

 and they are expensive luxuries for him to keep even though he 

 got them for nothing. 



What means may be taken to weed out these cow boarders? 

 Three pieces of testimony needed are 



1. The amount of milk the cow gives. 



2. The quality of milk the cow gives. 



