118 BOARD or AGRICULTURE. 



ers of this State be awakened ? lu New England we have abundance 

 of cheap land, the primary requisite of successful dairying. Here 

 we have to wait less time for the improvement of stock than the 

 western farmer. Already we can show higher butter averages, and 

 we can reach the markets in less time, and possibly at as little 

 cost. Quite recently a Boston editor wrote the following communi- 

 cation on the western competitor : 



"A large amount of New England capital has been diverted the 

 past few years to Western farm mortgages. The high rate of 

 interest, and the fat commissions paid to smart agents in the East 

 for selling these Western mortgages, has induced heav}' purchases. 

 These obligations are now beginning to mature, and New Hampshire, 

 which was one of the first communities to invest in them, has begun 

 to appreciate the uncertain character of the security, and its 

 investors are re-insisting upon payment in preference to making 

 renewals Evidence is accumulating every day that the Western 

 debtor is preparing to resist the payment of these obligations, 

 except upon such terms as he sees fit to make. For instance, it is 

 the intention of an influential party in the Kansas Legislature to 

 pass a bill this winter that will sta}' the collection of leius upon real 

 estate until three years after they have matured. We trust New 

 England savings banks will finally wake up to the importance of 

 loaning more monej, and at reasonable rates, on property nearer 

 home, and of more certain value. Local loans will tend to develop 

 and improve the property in the immediate vicinity of those whose 

 surplus earnings furnish the capital to our savings banks." 



Can New England economy and thrift invest its savings to 

 better advantage than b}' investing in stock, buildings and cream- 

 eries? The efl'ect of dairy influence on land values offers the highest 

 testimony of the value of butter making in the countries where 

 dairying has been followed for ten, twenty or thirty 3-ears. In the 

 three oldest dairy States of New England the creamery has largely 

 increased the amount of taxable property, and in those counties 

 where land values have not decreased, or decreased more than they 

 have, is largely owing to butter dairying. I can offer no higher 

 tribute to the intelligence of a farming community' than to select the 

 cases of a few of the man}- dairy successes in Massachusetts, Con- 

 necticut, Vermont and New York. At a meeting of the New York 

 Dairyman's Association, held a year ago, one of the speakers was 

 called upon to figure up the cost of ensilage b}' the acre and ton. 



