92 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



expert dairymen who in many cases have the water in the barn. 

 But sometimes the cattle travel over a laneway to water or pas- 

 ture, and a large portion of the fertility is dropped along that 

 laneway, going down into the stream and doing that farm no 

 good. Then perhaps back in the pasture there is a bunch of 

 hemlocks, — there is on my own farm, and very cold, stormy 

 nights cattle gather in that clump of trees because it is warmer, 

 and there are loads of fertility helping out nothing but those 

 hemlocks. What is left in the barn, how is that handled? 

 Years ago we used to have auger holes bored to let the liquid 

 through. I think few farmers are so far back as that, but too 

 often the gutter is a leaky one and the greater part of the liquid 

 is lost before it gets to the manure pile. Half of the nitrogen 

 is in the liquid, consequently half of the most valuable material 

 is lost at the start. Then there are still with us many farmers 

 who throw the manure out under the eaves. We do not use 

 the barn cellar, as we feel that that is too valuable a part of the 

 building. We keep our stock in the basement. Often, too 

 often, that material is thrown out and allowed to leach, and half 

 of what remains is lost. So that perhaps not over one-fourth 

 of the nitrogen which that manure originally contained is left 

 when it reaches the field. And yet here is what seems to me is 

 the real basis of the prosperity of the dairy regions of our coun- 

 try. What is the remedy? In the first place, the remedy is 

 better handling of this product. We build ujj the fertility of 

 the soil and make it produce more and consequently get a higher 

 return. We get more clover, and clover, it seems to me, is the 

 hest friend of the dairyman, or I may say of the farmer in all 

 lines. To the dairymen it is an especial friend. It not only 

 helps him to maintain the fertility of the soil, it not only gathers 

 back the nitrogen which he wastes so carelessly, but it improves 

 the soil. It gets down into the subsoil and brings up the potash 

 and phosphoric acid and it also gives him a feed which enables 

 him to reduce largely his expenses for purchased protein, not 

 •only improving the soil but improving the feed. 



We have talked a great deal about making the farm a carbo- 

 hydrate factory for feeding purposes, but it seems to me we 

 ought to do more, to make it a protein factory. Is there any 

 reason why we should limit it to carbohydrates ? I suppose you 

 cannot grow alfalfa, but I do not know that it is any great loss. 



