DAIRY MEETING. 



REMARKS BY R. W. ELLIS, Embden. 



I have been in the dairy business for quite a long time. I am 

 well aware that when a man gets up to face the members of the 

 Dairymen's Association, he is facing the best part of the agri- 

 culture of Maine. The dairymen of Maine represent the most 

 intelligent class of the farmers of Maine, from the fact that the 

 dairy business is the best business that is carried on upon the 

 farms of Maine, and the most intelligent are the quickest to see 

 it. I cannot be expected to tell you anything you do not already 

 know. It is hard for any man to come into the State of Maine 

 and tell the dairymen anything they do not already know. But 

 we can bring old truth before them in a new light, and impress 

 it upon them more thoroughly, and do some good thereby. We 

 have heard these talks, lo ! these many years, on the dairy ques- 

 tion and on the feeds to raise for the dairy cow. The matter 

 of clover production we have heard discussed from away back. 

 Men have come here who have been thoroughly imbued with 

 the idea of bringing up our rundown farms with clover. Every 

 man here knows the value of clover as a land renovator. We 

 all understand that perfectly well. But clover is biennial; we 

 cannot keep it more than two years anyway, and the oftener we 

 go over our land the more clover we can get. Now I believe 

 in a quick rotation of crops. Our method is first corn, then 

 oats and peas, then clover for a couple of years, and repeat. 

 That puts our soil in the best possible condition to stand drought, 

 and to stand excessive wet. We had a wonderful season this 

 year, and it has opened my eyes so that I see things differently 

 from what I ever did before. I have been in the farming busi- 

 ness for more than 55 years, and this season has truly been an 

 eye opener to me. I have learned things that I never knew 

 before, and things which I did know have been impressed 

 upon my mind more strongly than ever before. We had a very 

 peculiar season in our locality. Nothing started to grow until 

 the last part of June. Then the weather became good and crops 

 grew very rapidly ; everything went ahead by leaps and bounds. 

 We had 12 acres of corn which was the pride of my heart. I 

 used to visit it almost daily, and every morning I could see that 



