DAIRY MEETING. WJ 



If the employee who passes from farm to farm is fairly 

 well informed as to methods of feeding and of barn sanitation, 

 and if he is a man of tact, he can in many ways give informa- 

 tion whereby the farmer can better the conditions of his stable 

 and his herd. I was talking, since I came to Auburn this morn- 

 ing, with a butter maker who said, "Cow testing associations 

 are all right, but we ought to have stable testing associations." 

 We have such things in a way, in Vermont. The law requires 

 that where the milk is being made for consumption in the towns 

 and cities as such, the inspector of the Board of Health shall go 

 about among the milk producers and investigate conditions. 

 One of our agricultural graduates is inspector. The farmers 

 sometimes get very mad at him, but he is a good natured chap 

 and tells them straightforward truths, and, after two or three 

 visits, if they do not improve their practice, they are shut out 

 of the trade and not allowed to peddle milk until they get 

 their barns in better sanitary condition. Nothing unreason- 

 able, nothing impracticable, simply better, cleaner, healthier 

 milk. 



In this State you are better off, in a way, than are your sister 

 states, in that you have an active Department of Agriculture 

 and a State Dairy Instructor. The Department, moreover, has 

 this matter very closely at heart, and, I understand, has exerted 

 more or less effort to work up an interest in these associations. 

 I do not expect my talk here will convert you all, but I do hope 

 it will set you thinking. I believe you are in good condition in 

 Maine to become the pioneer New England State in the start- 

 ing of this proposition. Having an effective law and active and 

 interested officials, I believe you can start on the scheme whereby 

 the employee passes from farm to farm, and that the work will 

 so commend itself to your dairymen that each association will 

 be like an infection center spreading the virus to other asso- 

 ciations and to other states. 



Summarizing this matter: Concerning cow testing associa- 

 tions it may be said : 



First, that these are simply local organizations of dairymen 

 who seek through co-operative effort to detect unprofitable 

 cows. 



Second, that the details of their conduct are few and simple. 



Third, that they are inexpensive affairs. 



