VERMONT DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 3 1 



eggs per year. A Western friend writes me that Swift & Company 

 ship skimmed milk to feed poultry and, as he puts it, makes plenty 

 of money by the scheme. 



But when we consider our nearness to large cities in comparison 

 to many places far away that depend upon the same markets, we 

 certainly have opportunities in the products we grow directly from 

 the soil, and if we can stand in the race with the Western farmer in 

 the dairy business, with the small margin in our favor wiped out by 

 their nearness to the grain supply, why cannot we compete with them 

 in the canning industry? When Western grown corn sells for 50 

 cents per dozen cans, Eastern sells for 85 cents per dozen, an increase 

 of over 60 per cent, in our favor, due to the superior quality of our 

 corn, while the present supply is only 20 per cent, of the demand. 

 Maine has the lead in the canning industry for the New England 

 States, but factories are now beginning to come into Vermont, and 

 it seems worth our while to give this matter a fair trial before we 

 let it slip away into other hands. 



The raising of garden truck is a growing opportunity for many of 

 us to consider and the raising of potatoes is made profitable in con- 

 nection with the dairy business. We have quite a large dairyman in 

 this county who takes up the raising of potatoes as his specialty. His 

 crop last fall, so he tells me, was the modest amount of 8,000 bushels. 

 I have been in conversation with him at different times for several 

 years back and I have failed yet to detect any desire on his part to 

 get out of the farming business. 



As a last and very important co-worker with the dairy industry I 

 want to mention fruit raising. Vermont apples are noted for their 

 quality the country over, and I think we little realize our opportunities 

 in this direction. I will give my own experience with an orchard set out 

 thirty years ago by my father, consisting of thirty trees and covering 

 three-fourths of an acre of ground. When the orchard first came 

 into bearing it produced nice fruit, but the apples kept growing smaller 

 and became of very inferior quality. When I first came into possession 

 of it I was glad to dispose of the crop for very little money. Eight 

 years ago I put on a liberal coating of stable dressing and commenced 

 spraying the trees. In response to this extra amount of labor and 

 attention, which did not amount to over $25 aside from harvesting 

 the crop, I gathered a carload of apples and sold them for $470. I 

 have continued practically the same treatment; the orchard comes 

 into bearing every other year and each time I have met with about 

 the same results, which fairly proves the fact that large returns per 

 acre are possible even up here in Vermont and on a comparatively 

 low labor account. 



I do not wish in any way to convey the idea of letting down the 

 bars in the dairy business, although the extreme measures we some- 

 times hear advocated hardly seem practical at this present day. We 

 do not say but what a farmer in Vermont will be more successful to 

 stick to the dairy business than to try anything else, if he can carry 



