DAIRY MEETING. 1 23 



our barns. Our morning's milk is nearly all delivered before ii 

 o'clock, and our afternoon's milk nearly all before 7 o'clock. Of 

 course we carry forward some milk from morning to afternoon, 

 and some from afternoon to the next morning, but it is a very 

 small proportion. There we have the ideal conditions. And 

 yet these can always be more or less approached, because, as I 

 have said, if the cow^s are kept clean and the milk is treated in 

 this way it will keep almost indefinitely, and if it were not fur- 

 nished to the consumer until the next day there would be no 

 question whatever as to its condition. I want to say again that 

 one of the principal secrets is instantaneous cooling, because a 

 few years ago I did not myself believe that this would accom- 

 plish what it does, and I understand that many others cannot 

 believe that the instantaneous removal of animal heat will have 

 such a decided effect on the milk. 



We could not get the price of nine cents per quart if we were 

 not situated as we are, with our barns always open to inspection ; 

 but the very situation carries with it heavy expenses. The home 

 farm is but 25 acres, and considerable of that is taken up by 

 woodland in which our cattle have the run for exercise. We 

 keep at that farm 150 cows or more, and no hay is grown any- 

 where in the vicinity. We buy all our hay for that farm, and as 

 you will readily understand we do not always sfet the best hav. 

 We buy wholly clover or clover mixed. We do raise, or under- 

 take to raise, ensilage, but that is raised on leased land, none of 

 which is nearer than about three miles to the farm, and some of it 

 is seven miles distant. So you see our problem is an entirely dif- 

 ferent one from that of the ordinary farmer. Not only do we 

 get a higher price for our milk, but we have a much heavier cost 

 in producing it. We have built silos in our corn-fields, on these 

 leased lands, and the corn is put directly into those silos in the 

 field, minimizing the cost of filling the silo. Then when we close 

 up for the winter, we begin at once to draw the manure from the 

 farm to those lands and bring back the ensilage. A four-horse 

 load of manure is taken to the field, the wagon emptied, swept 

 clean, and then loaded with ensilage. Loading both ways ena- 

 bles us to handle the ensilage from a distance without the 

 expense that would be otherwise entailed. For the last two 

 years we have not got good returns from our ensilage. This 



