PROFITS OF FEEDI^G HAY. 



51 



QtfKSTioN. IIow much for pasturing? 



Mr. CoBH. Six to eight dollars for the season. 



Question. Do you take into account the depreciation in the cow, 

 in the cost of yoiu- milk? 



Mr. CoBii. Yes, we do. I don't say but that other stock can be kept 

 at a greater prolit than this. 1 have a boy who is eleven years old . Last 

 spring he was pleased with the idea of buying a pair of calves. I 

 bought them and gave thirty-two dollars for them. Thej- gained in 

 ten months, up to cattle show time, fourteen inches, and he was 

 offered eighty-six dollars for them. The}- weighed 1,725 pounds, a 

 pair of j-earlings. They have had corn fodder and straw through 

 the winter, and a pint apiece of cotton seed meal with two quarts of 

 bran mixed with it. Five months in the summer they fed in the 

 pasture; $7.r>() was paid for pasturing during those five months, and 

 thev had nothing else to eat for that time. 



Sec. GiLBKKT. Mr. Cobb has indicated to you something of 

 what ma}" be secured from cows by getting a goodly flow of milk. 

 He has stated that he sells his milk, a market which is not open to 

 all farmers in the State. Mr. Harris will indicate to you whether 

 farmers, located where the}- cannot sell their milk in that form, can 

 secure paying returns for the fodder fed out through the other forms 

 into which it can be put. 



'W. W. Hakkis, member of the board from Cumberland Count}' : 

 I feel that I cannot give you much light upon this matter, after 

 listening to what has been said in the paper to which we have list- 

 ened and in the discussion which has followed. 



There is one thing that I believe I know, and I think farmers here 

 will endorse it, and that is that the man does not live in the State 

 of Maine, who practices selling hay year by year, who is not at the 

 same time selling his farm so that sooner or later he will seriously 

 reduce its capacity for hay production. Of course a farmer living 

 near Portland or any other city, Avhere he has extra facilities for 

 buying fertilizers, can sell his hay and still keep his farm up ; but 

 my observation has ])een that the man usually forgets to buy the 

 fertilizers ; he puts the money in the bank, or does something else 

 with it, aside from putting the fertility back upon his farm. 



I have had some experience in selling milk, like my friend, Mr. 

 Cobb. I ran for seven or eight years a milk farm near Portland. I 

 bought an old farm pretty well run out, and at that time did not 

 live on it. I hired help, stocked it with cows and sold milk. I 



