DAIRV MEETING. 12/ 



needs to do just the .>ame thing. He wants to find out lUst 

 the san:e thing. He wants to find out just where he stands in 

 his husiness. He cannot make a good business and simply 

 depend upon the amount of money he has left in lu's pocket 

 at the end of the year for his knowledge of whether he is mak- 

 ing monev from his farm or not. Those of us who are calling 

 ourselves educators are trying to encourage the I\Iaine farmer, 

 and the New England farmer, to adopt business methods. Now 

 in my own business, I do not think that our mission is so much 

 to tell the farmer how to grow his crops as it is to encourage 

 him in the improvement of his business. Of course one feature 

 of the business of a farm journal is to tell the farmer how^ to 

 grow crops, but the more important mission, it seems to me, is 

 to tell him how to improve the business of farming and induce 

 him to adopt better business methods. That is also one of the 

 great objects of such gatherings as this Dairy Conference. The 

 farmers who come here are encouraged not simply to improve 

 their methods of managing their dairy and to learn how to feed 

 their cows better, because they could get that from books. They 

 have gotten over the time of disbelieving in book farming; but 

 the farmers get some inspiration and encouragment to adopt 

 the kind of business methods that the city man has adopted, by 

 going to such gatherings as this. There are some features of 

 the farming business that are very profitable for Maine today 

 among those farmers wdio are conducting their business on busi- 

 ness methods. You all know some of the results that have come 

 from our orchards this year. I know of one man wdio has sold 

 250 barrels of Northern Spy apples from one acre of ground. 

 I do not know^ how much he got for them all but I know he 

 sold some for six dollars and some for five. If he averaged 

 four dollars he made a pretty good income from that acre of 

 ground. And he is going to get at least 250 barrels from that 

 acre every year. The good orchardist has gotten over the be- 

 lief that there is an ofif year in apple growing. Another man 

 told me a few days ago that he picked 33 barrels of fancy ap- 

 ples from an acre and a half of ground ; and there is at least one 

 man in the State who has sold $15,000 dollars w^orth of apples 

 out of his orchard this year. And there are a good many who 

 have sold just a few barrels of apples. We all know that there 

 are a great manv orchards in IMaine that are not bearing a 



