74 AGRICULTURE 01^ MAINE. 



The requisites of a good milker are cleanliness, speed and 

 thoroughness. They must also treat the cow as a friend rather 

 than as an animal, and pet rather than abuse her. Then we shall 

 get the profits, when the reverse would mean a loss. The care 

 of the milk will be discussed later by a man who has had much 

 experience in that direction. That is one of the necessary quali- 

 ties of profitable dairying, for so long as we can make a better 

 product than our competitor we are sure of a better market and 

 better prices, which always means more profit. 



We come next to the separation of the cream from the milk 

 and it does not matter how it is done as long as it is thorough, 

 but we cannot afford to allow any amount of fat to remain in 

 the skim-milk, and I know no way in which the work can be so 

 thoroughly done as with the separator, of which there are sev- 

 eral on exhibition today. They do the work quickly and 

 thoroughly, leaving the skim-milk warm as it came from the cow, 

 minus the fat, and it can be fed to the pig or calf in its best pos- 

 sible condition, an important factor in the profit to be derived. 

 I am surprised and pleased to find so many separators in your 

 county, and am convinced that all that is necessary is for you 

 to show that you can get profit out of the work, when you will 

 make Aroostook county not only the garden of Maine, but the 

 dairy as well. 



The marketing of the product is one of the most important 

 questions connected with dairying. Though we have every other 

 condition right, if we have no market, or not a profitable one, 

 our efforts will fail, and as I said before if we will take the care 

 of our product, which will make it the best, we shall find a ready 

 market in whatever form we choose to sell it. 



The creameries afford a ready market for all the product we 

 care to supply, and place no restrictions on the quantity, but take 

 whatever increase we may have from time to time at prices that 

 compare with the markets of any other state. Vermont is the 

 one New England state which we look to as the dairy state. Its 

 farmers are making dairying their specialty, and are very pros- 

 perous, and the stories of their prosperity sound very much like 

 those of your own county. But the prices of their products are 

 not as high as those in our own State, and I am sure they can 

 raise no better nor sweeter feed, nor have purer water than in 

 the beautiful county of Aroostook. Why, then, cannot we 



