DAIRY MEETING. 97 



from the increased crops. Think what clover has done for our 

 farm at Orono every year for more than 25 years ! In all our 

 grass seeding every acre gets its proportion of clover, and we 

 also grow clover by itself. The benefit does not end with the 

 clover plant. We have not only put fertility into the soil but we 

 have added organic matter. On these old farms where we are 

 not farming to make money but to make homes, I am thankful 

 that dairying does not pay better than it does, because if dairy- 

 ing paid so well that the capitalist could put his money into it, 

 he would be investing in our Maine lands and we should be hire- 

 lings working for him. It is the very fact that Maine agricul- 

 ture pays as little as it does that enables us to keep our homes; 

 and one of the means of making those homes better is the grow- 

 ing of better plants and making a better soil, bringing the old, 

 compact soil to life by the introduction of the clover plant, the 

 using of organic matter and the enrichment of the soil. Down 

 in my old home in Bowdoinham, I remember one field of eight 

 acres where we broke the sod and with the application of a ton 

 of gypsum brought clover in, and the following year it produced 

 one and one-half tons of clover per acre. There is something 

 that is encouraging in connection with this matter and a good 

 deal that is discouraging. We have been talking about this 

 matter for a good many years, and isn't it strange that so few 

 realize the benefit that will result from the use of the clover 

 plant? Another thing is discouraging, and that is that there 

 should be a necessity for the formation of cow test asso- 

 ciations. Sixteen or seventeen years ago Dr. Babcock perfected 

 the Danish system, that little machine that would enable the 

 farmer to test milk for the richness in fat and it was introduced 

 into general use. We commenced immediately to talk about it 

 in the farmers' institutes and at the College, and is it possible 

 that it is necessary to urge the farmers of Maine to band 

 together to use this little appliance which will enable them to 

 pick out the good cows and save them, and pick out the poor 

 cows and discard them? This is rather discouraging. 



A. W. GiivMAN. At the first farmers' institute I ever attended 

 two of the subjects discussed were the dairy cow and the clover 

 plant, and they are just as full of interest today, and there is 

 just as much to be said about them and just as much need of 



