86 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



of the cows of Maine. At 30 cents a pound this would be a 

 little over $50, and the revenue from ten cows would be a little 

 over $500. You may add something more for collateral returns, 

 but we may assume that the income of the man who has fifteen 

 cows is limited to seven or eight or nine hundred dollars, and 

 of the average farmer ii is not more than $750. By the time 

 he has paid his help and his grain bills, and reckoned the depre- 

 ciation of his animals and of his team, when he comes around 

 to the balance it is not surprising that the sons from all over 

 Maine have been willing to leave the farm for a $2.00 job ; 

 those who have inherited the old homestead and the love of 

 independence are taking a job on the electric road, or such low 

 paying clerkships as may offer. We find that for the last ten 

 years the index figures of prices of commodities indicate a 

 change in values that shows that the products of agriculture are 

 rising faster than any other single commodity on the markets, 

 with one possible exception ; meaning this to you and to me, — 

 that the taking up of new land and the increase of production 

 are hardly keeping pace with the consumption, and that we have 

 reached that era when consumption is outrunning production. 

 Though we have passed through a time of financial stress, farm 

 products have held their level better than any other class of 

 products, without artificial support. All of this means that we 

 are on permanently higher prices. These prices are on as high 

 a level as we need to have and, as I believe, as we ought to have ; 

 for the manufactories of the world are giving us cheaper goods 

 and we are asking higher prices for our goods. It is up to the 

 farmer to produce more and in methods that net a better profit. 

 It is evident to me that there can be no final solution of success- 

 ful farming in New England that does not rest upon an enlarged 

 effort on the part of the farmer. I do not mean enlarged farms, 

 but the concentration of intellect upon every acre of land until 

 you have received from it its utmost possibility. 



But this is generalizing, and I need to be as concrete as possi- 

 ble. To make you understand distinctly what I have in my 

 own mind, I will do as I often do in Maine, approach this ques- 

 tion by one or two roads. Take the line of butter production." 

 I believe the farmers of Maine are concerned primarily not so 

 much with the amount of butter an improved cow will produce 



