40 AGRICULTURE 01* MAINE. 



It is a difficult task to get a man to change when he has been 

 doing the same thing for a dozen years or more, and often 

 dairymen are met with who have no use for anything different 

 because they are satisfied with the old regime. Tt is the dairy- 

 man who wishes to be progressive and sees that changes are 

 for his own benefit that welcomes inspection. 



A very noticeable fault that I have found on nearly every 

 farm visited is the lack of an adequate system of manure dis- 

 posal. The practice of throwing it out of a window back of the 

 animals seems more in vogue than pushing it through the floor. 

 This prevents the odors coming up through tlie floor but does 

 not improve the situation very much for the piles are left for 

 many months at a time, become very disagreeable, pollute the 

 barnyard and act as a breeding place for flies, to say nothing 

 of the loss in fertilizing value. It is a peculiar fact that usually 

 the road side of the barn is selected for the manure pile, and 

 in visiting some of the best milk farms the first sight from the 

 road, other than the buildings, is the manure pile. It seems 

 to me it would be better to find a less conspicuous spot, as well 

 as to keep from advertising that slack method of manure dis- 

 posal. 



Another feature which is decidedly lacking is the use of 

 some sort of a covered pail, to reduce the amount of sediment 

 entering the milk. In all of my visits I have endeavored to 

 p>oint out the disadvantages of the open pail and the impossi- 

 bility of straining out the dirt after it is once in the milk, 

 resulting. I am glad to say, in the adoption of a covered pail 

 in many instances. 



A certain number of minor changes, as has been said, can be 

 stood by the average farmer, but just how much will be the 

 added expense it i^ difficult to state. At present the milk busi- 

 ness in this State is hardly a very profitable one. Evervwhere 

 farmers say they can get a living at it but not much more. 

 The production of good, clean, wholesome milk means a change 

 in their present method as has been shown by the large number 

 of dirty samples taken. It means a little more time in the cow 

 stable before milking and at milking time, more time in washing 

 utensils, more careful feeding, a diflferent disposal of the ma- 

 nure, covered milk pails, more light and air. and the use of 

 ice in cooling and keonincr the mifk. Providing the farmer has 



