96 agriculture: of MAINE. 



butter, and in your cream trade you have an excellent business, 

 but I think if a man is willing to cater to a special market, and 

 to look after all the details, he has a good field in the manufac- 

 turing of dairy butter. Of course you are a little hampered in 

 the production of corn for the silo in some parts of the State, 

 but taking it all in all it seems to me you Maine dairymen have 

 much to encourage you in this special line of work. 



G. AI. GowELiv. I am glad of this opportunity of meeting 

 you. I hardly know what I can say to you that will interest or 

 instruct you. We have been talking about these dairy questions 

 so long that to me they seem to be nearly worn out, and yet the 

 necessity for continually talking about them is apparent when 

 we consider the subjects that are brought in here for considera- 

 tion. Now the gladdest word in Maine agriculture is clover, 

 and we have been talking about clover for 25 years and urging 

 its growth. It means so much to our agriculture, it is so easily 

 grown ! All our conditions are favorable for its growth and yet 

 we have neglected it all the way along. And whenever that magic 

 word "Alfalfa" has been spoken, we have all thought we wanted 

 to raise alfalfa, and have forgotten clover, and oats and peas, and 

 the grasses, those old fashioned friends which have been with 

 us always. It is our duty to breed better plants of clover, to 

 raise better oats and peas, to grow our forage in that way and 

 not run after those newly introduced plants which are so diffi- 

 cult for us to grow. I have expended perhaps more on one acre 

 of alfalfa, trying to get a successful stand, than I would put 

 on twenty acres of clover, and yet it is a failure. I want to 

 grow alfalfa for my early spring work, but it is with difficulty 

 that I am securing it. You know clover will spring up where 

 we least expect it, where it has not been seeded or fertilized for 

 a long time, telling us everywhere we turn that this is the plant 

 that is natural to our soils and wants to grow, and if we will 

 only make the most of it, it will mean much to us. I remember 

 at one time of taking a field of two acres that had not grown a 

 satisfactory crop of grass for a long period of years, plowing 

 it shallow in the fall and fertilizing it with a light coat of com- 

 mercial fertilizer, and harvested two tons of clover hay. Think 

 of the improved conditions that would result from a continua- 

 tion of that work, turning down a piece once in three years, 

 turning in this organic matter and utilizing the manure produced 



