DAIRY MEETING. 6l 



the creameries and butter factories. Conditions then were 

 somewhat bad in our State. There was no co-operation on the 

 part of the creameries. If I were producing cream and sending 

 it to Mr. Jones' factory and it was not of good quaUty, Mr. 

 Jones might say, "I will not have your cream," but Mr. Smith 

 would send his cart up and get it. So I would say to Mr. Jones, 

 "I do not care whether you take my cream or not, Mr. Smith 

 will take it." That was the condition that existed then. There 

 was no co-operation on the part of anybody, and we wanted a 

 Dairy Instructor to go around and preach this gospel of 

 co-operation and get the creameries to co-operate so that if a 

 farmer produced filthy cream he could not sell it to any cream- 

 ery, without taking a reduced price. We adopted this resolu- 

 tion and a committee was appointed to go down to the legisla- 

 ture. We went down there with more confidence than four 

 years previous. When we appeared in the Senate and House 

 of Representatives they beheld us a strong, sturdy boy, almost 

 old enough to vote, and they listened to our plea and we got our 

 appropriation. The Commissioner of Agriculture appointed a 

 Dairy Instructor, Mr. Thompson, who was succeeded by Mr. 

 Merrill, and you know the work they have accomplished in the 

 past. There is now co-operation on the part of the creameries 

 and if I am not producing cream up to the standard and Mr. 

 Jones refuses to take it, Mr. Smith will not take it, except at 

 a reduced price. That is an incentive for me to produce better 

 cream, and as a result we have raised the standard of the quality 

 of cream that is produced, and the quality of butter. 



What are we doing at the present time? In my judgment 

 one of the greatest hindrances to dairying in the State of 

 Maine is the want of good cows, and right here has been a 

 great change and a great reform. We have a different breed 

 of cattle in Maine, a breed of cattle that require different hand- 

 ling and different care from those we had here a few years ago, 

 and the farmer has not been educated up to taking care of these 

 finely bred cattle as he should have been, and that is the work 

 we are trying to accomplish, trying to show the farmer that he 

 should give his cows better care and better feed, and there have 

 been organized three cow testing associations, and you under- 

 stand the lines on which they are working. The farmers 



