l86 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



more fundamental principles that should be considered by 

 Maine dairymen. I do not care how much the milk organs of 

 the cow are developed, I do not care how much the milk func- 

 tion has been encouraged by breeding and feeding, if that cow 

 is one sided in her makeup, if her other organs are not devel- 

 oped in proportion, she is of little practical value in the dairy; 

 she is a subject of abortion, tuberculosis and other diseases, 

 because of the lack of constitutional vitality, of heart and lung 

 power. She becomes a worthless animal for business. 



Again, in relation to feeding, for many years Maine farmers 

 have largely overlooked the capacity of their own farms for 

 dairy foods. They have been taught, sometimes to their detri- 

 ment, to look beyond the farms for their food. We hear our 

 speakers talk along the line of producing clover and other feeds 

 that grow naturally on Maine soils and thrive in the Maine 

 climate, and that I think is one of the most encouraging signs 

 of dairy thought and dairy teaching today. I am looking to 

 see more and more Maine farmers cultivating these acres of 

 ours and getting from them the most nutritious, the most pala- 

 table and the best balanced food for all purposes for their dairy 

 cows, and thus overcoming the drain for purchased grain. 



W. G. HuNTON. I want to say just a word to emphasize 

 to the practical farmers here the point that has been touched 

 upon in relation to depending on our future herds. Twenty- 

 seven years ago I began with one cow to build up a dairy herd, 

 and for the last fifteen years I have had not less than 25, and 

 today I have not a cow or heifer on the farm (and I have 37) 

 but that I raised myself. And for fifteen years I have not had 

 a three teated cow or a tuberculous cow in my herd. I attribute 

 the freedom of my herd from disease to the fact that I have 

 raised my own heifers and cows and fed them almost exclu- 

 sively from the production of the farm. I have neighbors who 

 have as large herds as I have, who are constantly obliged to 

 call in the Cattle Commissioners for tuberculosis, who are con- 

 stantly disposing of three teated cows, and who have two or 

 three times in the last fifteen years had their herds nearly 

 destroyed by abortion, but I have had none of those troubles. 

 The only food I allow myself to buy is some nitrogen in the 

 form of concentrated feeding stuffs, and I never buy beyond 

 what money I get from selling something from the farm, like 



