96 THIRTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



filled with corn; it is all right; it is a grand, good idea, but it is a good 

 idea to have some nice rowen clover or orchard grass. 



I want to ask Governor Hoard a question. I have lots of straw — 

 what are you going to do with it? Last year I said I will put the straw 

 in the manger, wet it and spread on a whole lot of cotton seed meal 

 and perhaps I can deceive the cows into eating straw. I kept prac- 

 ticing that; I thought it was not a very good thing, because cotton 

 seed meal tends to make the cows constipated, but it worked well, and 

 I used all the straw. I do not think that would be approved of by 

 Governor Hoard, but what shall we do with the straw? There is lots of 

 it; the question is, whether it would be better to throw the straw away 

 and give them herds grass? What shall we do with our straw — shall we 

 take the herds grass and throw it all out, or shall we use up our 

 straw? 



President Aitken. — The next name on the program is my name, 

 and I do not propose to take up the time of this meeting at all. I 

 just want to say a few words on the subject of what we heard this 

 morning from Governor Hoard. I 'want to thank the Governor per- 

 sonally for coming here and telling us the truth, for telling us our soil 

 is being debilitated by the system of agriculture that is being carried on. 

 It is a sound truth; that is the trouble with our soil; the Governor 

 does not realize it as well as we do— the lack of humus. It is the 

 only thing our soil lacks, and not simply because our soils have been 

 long used, but because of the care of them. It is the lack of humus 

 that has caused the short crop if anything. 



I was to speak on the breeding of dairy stock. The average butter 

 made per cow is 160 pounds; it is not half as much as it ought to be, 

 and we ought to see to it that our cattle are better bred and better 

 cared for so that they will make us a profit. There is a large difference 

 between a cow that will make 160 pounds and 300 pounds as there is 

 between the hen that lays 30 eggs and the one that lays 250. 



I do not often admit that anybody tells me anything I don't know. 

 The Governor told me the reason why the creameries had operated on 

 the minds of the dairymen, because that is the trouble with us here in 

 Vermont. We do not pay enough attention to the cow. It is this veil 

 that has come between us and our butter. We have got our butter up to 

 a high standard because we have had a competitive exhibition of butter 

 here every year; every man who has had an interest in his farm has gone 

 home and tried to make it better. What is the result? The whole 

 grade of butter here in Vermont has been raised. What we want in 

 this State — I do not know whether they want it so much in other 

 States — but what we want is a competition in cattle, because then we 

 will feel as much interest in each individual cow as we do to make the 

 best butter, and we would very soon see an improvement in our dair_\ 

 stock. They have tried in Denmark, England and Germany and in all 

 countries where they are ahead of us. Every little township has its 

 cattle show. Take the Isle of Jersey; they obtain more money for the 



