DAIRY MEETING. 1 45 



and that they say is good enough for them. If I was selHng 

 cream, I would send a sample of every cow's milk to the cream- 

 ery about once a month and have them test it for butter fat, and 

 in this way I would weed out any cow that was not profitable as 

 a butter maker. My best cow to date was Lady Felker, who 

 produced in 365 days 17,694 pounds 14 ounces, and her milk at 

 factory prices sold for $199.73- She was a thoroughbred and 

 raised by Henry Boardman of Bangor who several years ago 

 started a herd of ITolsteins that were second to none and would 

 have been a great benefit to the dairymen of Maine if they had 

 been appreciated and continued. This cow I rescued from a 

 butcher when she was two years 'old, for $38. I have another 

 thoroughbred that is giving between 14,000 and 15,000 pounds 

 this year and has a day's record of 75 pounds 10 ounces, and in 

 thirty days gave almost 2,000 pounds. I have a grade that has 

 just closed her year and gave 14,600 pounds, an average of 40 

 pounds per day for the year, and the milk sold for $186. One 

 of my grade three-year-olds is giving over 13,000 pounds with 

 her second calf, and gave over 10,000 pounds with her first calf. 

 One of my thoroughbred two-year-olds is just closing her year 

 with a record of about 10,500 pounds. So you will see that I 

 have succeeded in improving the capacity of my herd in the past 

 six years, and I hope to keep on improving it for years to come, 

 and what I have done and hope to do, you may all do by using 

 the same methods. The best mark of a dairy cow is her net 

 income to her owner, and that is the weak point on your score 

 card system, that you go too much on dairy form and ignore 

 dairy performance. Feed the calves liberally and keep them 

 growing, from birth to maturity, as you never can make a profit- 

 able dairy cow out of a stunted, half-starved calf. 



Keep the cows clean ; one of the worst faults of the average 

 dairyman is his tendency to keep his cows during the winter sea- 

 son in a nasty, filthy condition. When we realize that a large 

 per cent of the milk produced in this country is consumed in its 

 whole state, and that infants and invalids are fed almost wholly 

 on milk, it is really criminal for dairymen to be so slack in this 

 most important branch of dairying, and you, ^Iv. Oilman, as 

 commissioner of agriculture, can engage in no work that will be 

 more humane or result in a greater profit to the ]\Iaine dairymen 



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