DAIRY MEETING, 187 



sweet corn, or something of that kind. I believe that the 

 future of our dairying in this section of the State depends on 

 the farmer raising his own cows and feeding with the end in 

 view to produce healthy and good cows. I have two friends in 

 that line, corn and clover. They are perfectly natural to this 

 country, they grow so freely as weeds, if we give them a little 

 encouragement. I have no time nor inclination to bother with 

 any plants which are not indigenous to the climate when I have 

 two such friends. The only thing a farmer can do who thinks 

 he cannot pay a large sum for his original herd is to purchase a 

 good animal for the head of his herd, and then he can produce 

 cows that will bring $75. 



John M. Deering. I have listened with much interest to 

 the address by Dr. Smead. The State of New York is fortunate 

 in having a talking veterinarian. We have a great many 

 veterinarians in this State, but we seldom hear them talk. 

 Although my official business brings me in contact with most of 

 them, I have never seen one of them at our Convention to 

 speak to us. I did not hear Dr. Smead speak of tuberculosis 

 very much in his remarks. I wanted to hear him explain to us 

 if they had any tuberculosis in New York and if they did, how 

 they treated it. We are up against it here, and my associates 

 and I are trying to do the best we can in suppressing it. Per- 

 haps it would be well for me to say a word in that line, because 

 it is in the interests of dairying. I am one of those men who 

 keep cows and who buy cows. I have to buy my supply, I do 

 not raise them, and I am occasionally buying cows that will 

 not stand the tuberculin test. We cannot help that at present 

 but I think we can report here to this Dairymen's Association 

 that the work of the Commissioners is progressing. Last year 

 we were furnished by the United States Government with 

 6,000 doses of tuberculin and that was used principally for the 

 city of Portland, or for the market supply of the city of Port- 

 land. Six thousand cows were tested, and out of those we 

 condemned 206. This year the Board of Health demanded that 

 those same cows should be retested, and the veterinarians have 

 gone over the work again. Six thousand cows have been tested 

 and we have not found over 2 per cent diseased. Last year we 

 found about 8 per cent. That shows a decided improvement. 

 There are sections of the State where we have not done much 



