150 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



giving this matter a good deal of attention. I believe in 

 it; I believe it is the right step towards helping out the man on 

 the farm." You know it requires a great deal of effort to run 

 a dairy successfully, and farmers now, some of them, are begin- 

 ning to think they could get a living easier if they went into 

 sheep husbandry instead of giving so much attention to dairying. 

 Now I believe it is the duty of this Dairy Association, with the 

 Department of Agriculture, to show the farmers of Maine that 

 they can get more out of the dairy cow than they have ever 

 received before; but that can be done only along the line of 

 advance. Some man has suggested to me that he thought he 

 could test his own cows and thereby save the expense of the 

 association, but I am satisfied, myself, beyond a doubt, that that 

 is not the best way, because the farmers are more or less like 

 myself, they have lots of business to attend to and cannot 

 attend to everything. Then, again, there is a kind of feeling 

 existing that every man does not know how to take a proper 

 sample of his milk. He wants his cows to appear as well as 

 his neighbors, and he will lean a little towards taking the sample 

 nearer the strippings than the first of the milking. But when 

 a man under pay has charge of the whole, and is intelligent 

 about it and carries on a year's experiments, we shall know 

 more about the individual cow than we now know. I believe 

 in this work. I believe Prof. Hills said that Maine was ripe 

 for this movement, was in better condition to do the work today 

 than any other New England state. And if we have the oppor- 

 tunity and the ability, why should we not see to it that it is 

 done now, before the dairymen slacken up on the dairy product 

 and adopt something else, as sheep husbandry, that they can 

 carry on with much less labor. 



There is another work that has been spoken of here, the tak- 

 ing of a cow census. Much good has been derived from this 

 in other sections, and why should we not turn our attention to 

 it, here in Maine. Some of us think, — well, the farmer will 

 do it himself. I tell you, being a farmer all the days of my 

 life and being connected with these men, that we shall never do 

 it unless it is carried out along this line of which we have been 

 speaking. When somebody comes along and calls our atten- 

 tion to it and says. There is a way for you to receive more, do 

 more, and be better men along this line of work, we shall take 



