62 ' AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



co-operate and pay $i.co per cow, and a man is employed who 

 visits every farm once a month ; the milk from every individual 

 cow is weighed and tested for butter fat, and at the end of the 

 year by a little sum in addition this man is able to tell the farmer 

 just how much it is costing to produce a pound of butter fat, 

 from each individual cow. and the farmer can tell which are his 

 good cows and just how much they are producing. I think this 

 is the greatest boom to Maine dairjung since butter factories 

 were introduced into the State. 



Another thing is confronting us : The public are getting more 

 fussy, and are demanding better milk, and that is right. No 

 article of food that we consume has been produced under such 

 filthy conditions as milk. We have got used to it in a way, but 

 the matter is being revolutionized and the public are getting 

 alive to the fact that milk may contain some bacteria, and that 

 is something we knew little about years ago. \\'hen milk 

 soured or went wrong, when cream would not come, there was 

 more or less superstition. Perhaps somebody would tell you 

 to put a horseshoe into the cream, and some people might tell 

 you it was on account of the thunder and lightning, or it might 

 be on account of the excessively hot weather. It is only in 

 recent years, comparatively, that we have known anything about 

 bacteria. The Maine Dairymen's Association is trying to 

 remedy these conditions. This last year the Dairy Instructor 

 and his assistant have been going around using the score card 

 on the stables, showing the farmer wherein he failed and urging 

 him to produce a better quality of milk. We may perhaps go 

 to the legislature and ask for a little more money, as we want 

 more men in the field. The State of ]\Iaine is a large State, it 

 is pre-eminently a dairy State, and we want to encourage the 

 industry. We are going to keep along the lines in which we 

 have been working, only broaden out. 



These are some of the objects of the ]\Iaine Dairymen's Asso- 

 ciation and these are what we ask you who are not producers 

 but consumers to co-operate with and assist us in carrying out. 



A committee on resolutions was appointed by the president 

 of the Association, as follows: R. Alden, E. E. Harris, John 

 ]\I. Deering. 



A. W. GiLMAX. I want to say just this one thing, — that I 

 am exceedingly pleased with this royal reception that you have 



