20 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



There would be little danger of exhausting the subject. The se- 

 lection of animals, the production of foods and the handling of the 

 milk during its course from the pail to the final product placed in 

 market, are topics full of interest to ever}- dair^- man, and you 

 will doubtless discuss all these questions in future meetings, perhaps 

 at dates not far distant. Several years ago when I first caught a 

 glimpse of Maine agriculture, during a winter trip towards the in- 

 terior of your State, I was strongly impressed with the thought that 

 your farmers and oiu- farmers ought to have a better understanding 

 of each others wants, than I believe they have had or do have. 



" Adaptation" is a word that would make a text for a long lec- 

 ture in dair}' meetings or in any meeting of farmers. We should 

 learn to do those things which from our situation, ability or tastes 

 we can learn to do best. Maine has long been a sort of a back 

 pasture for Massachusetts, where the beef is grown and fattened 

 and the working oxen trained and fitted for Brighton market. A 

 great deal of young stock has also been sent down there some 

 years. Sometimes the prices received have been satisfactory, but 

 often they have been low, occasionalh- in seasons ot drought, less 

 than the cost of raising. 



As I remember the market years ago, most of your surplus stock 

 came as oxen and young animals, with a few old cows. More re- 

 cently there has grown up a considerable trade in dairy cows, 

 chiefly for the milk farmers living near Boston or the large manu- 

 facturing towns in the eastern portion of the State. 



The milk sold in Boston and in the scores of large manufacturing 

 cities and towns in southern New England is produced upon farms 

 located not verj- far from its place of sale. There is a circle near 

 every large town or city within which farm operations are confined 

 chiefl}- to the production of garden vegetables and pei-ishable small 

 fruits. Further out is a wider circle devoted largely to the making 

 of milk, and still further another in which butter making becomes a 

 leading industry. Maine is chiefly in this outer circle. My farm 

 lies in the milk belt, almost every neighbor being a milk producer. 

 Now, these milk producers do not as a rule raise their cows, for they 

 do not believe they can afford to do so. It requires about all the 

 energy they can command to secure a comfortable living by selling 

 milk at the prices they have thus far been compelled to a(!C«'pt. 

 The one all absorbing aim is to make the greatest possible number 

 of quart, of mi'k hat is just good enough to pass examination 



