1/2 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



ers appreciate the value of ground oats. They are a good food 

 for all kinds of stock, and there is nothing like them for growing 

 stock. Watch the heifer calf all the way and when she comes 

 to maturity perhaps you will be pleased and not disappointed. 



But the most difficult problem of all, and one which I have not 

 yet solved, is this : with all the conditions which I have men- 

 tioned faithfully observed, how may we be sure of raising good 

 calves? Take all the pains I can, and get good blood on each 

 side, not more than half the calves that are dropped in my herd 

 are worth raising. Why, I do not know. They do not develop 

 into ideal dairy cows. They are lacking in various parts, and 

 in my observation in the State of Maine, of the Jersey cow in 

 particular (I know more about her than any other breed), they 

 are more lacking in the development of their fore udders than in 

 any other one point. If we can ever solve the problem of how 

 we can breed good dairy cows every time, a great work will have 

 been acccomplshed for the dairymen in this country. 



Another problem that confronts dairymen is the feed. The 

 question of starch foods has been solved in this State. There 

 is no excuse for any dairyman in Maine, in my judgment, to 

 buy one pound of corn meal or any of the starchy foods unless 

 we have unfavorable years and have failed to produce a corn 

 crop. Our farms are wonderfully adapted to raising those kinds 

 of food rich in starch. The other kind, those which con- 

 tain protein, it is more difficult to produce here in Maine. I 

 have been working all my life on this one problem — how to raise 

 more of that kind of food and not buy so much of the miller. It 

 is not gratifying when you have been to market with your butter, 

 to leave two-thirds or three-fourths of the money to pay for 

 grain. When we have so much cheap land that is producing 

 nothing, it seems that we might raise it here. I have not solved 

 that problem entirely, yet I have to some degree. I have found 

 that by raising oats and peas we get that protein which we get 

 in cottonseed meal, and I have found that we can raise them suc- 

 cessfully in the State of Maine. They are natives of a cold cli- 

 mate and they get just the conditions that they want. I have 

 also solved that problem somew^hat by raising clover, but clover 

 is a difficult plant to raise. If I could raise alfalfa here, as I 

 know it can be raised in some of the western states, I should be 



