gg BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



quarts, of course the cost will be increased. If we can carry a 

 cow through for $25, I think we can demonstrate that there is 

 profit in the dairy system. But how can you carry a cow through 

 the winter on one ton of hay ? I acknowledge that you can't do 

 it by feeding in a helter-skelter way. The feeding must be regu- 

 lar, and 3'ou must have your arrangements to know that you feed 

 iust so much per day. It has been demonstrated by Prof. Arnold 

 that much of our hay is not digested, and does not become avail- 

 able to stock. If you take the best hay, that which is of good 

 quality and thoroughly cured, I acknowledge that you can keep 

 an animal well on it ; but when we have many acres to cut we 

 cannot always secure this crop in the best condition. Therefore 

 it is fair to assume that a large percentage of our hay crop, cut in 

 the last of July and August, is not the best product, and so I say 

 that a great deal of the hay fed out to our stock is not thoroughly 

 digested. Now, is there a well defined idea among our farmers 

 as to the best method of feeding stock ? I am of the opinion that 

 it is the best way to reduce the bulk of hay, and exchange it for 

 concentrated food ; that the animal will do better, that the manure 

 heap is better, that the yield of milk will be greater and richer. 

 There may be a question whether it is best to furnish this concen- 

 trated food in the form of corn meal, oat meal, or shorts ? I sup- 

 pose the best product to give cows would be oat meal, but we 

 cannot always do it. 



Mr. Wasson being called upon by Mr. Joyce of Brunswick, in 

 reference to porgy chum as food for stock, stated that as food for 

 dairy stock it should be ground fine ; that wliile he did not know 

 as it would increase the yield of cheese, it would make a marked 

 increase in the yield of butter ; and that after a cow is dried up, 

 he believed that more fat could be put on her by feeding porgy 

 chum than anything else. In reference to general feeding, Mr. 

 Wasson said : ' 



It is conceded as a fact that the agricultural future of Maine is 

 largely in its dairies. I want to supplement that statement by 

 saying, that I don't believe that among the best farmers of the 

 State, that man lives who has developed the full capacity of his 

 cow for producing milk, butter and cheese. By the census returns 

 of the State we find that the average annual production of butter 

 per cow is less than 100 lbs. ; among the best farmers of the State 

 we find that it is from 200 to 450 lbs. ; and we occasionally see in 

 the columns of our agricultural papers the statement of an instance 



