ADAPTABILITY OF MAINE TO DAIRYING. 261 



This is so plain and apparent and so strongly backed \ip by statis- 

 tics, it needs no argument to prove it, • 



IMaine lies within the best portion of the great American dairy 

 belt and at its eastern or best extremity. X. A. Willard of New 

 York, says : " The American dairy belt lies between the fortieth 

 and the forty-fifth parellels of latitude. It stretches from the 

 Atlantic to the Mississippi, and possibly to the Pacific. Within 

 its limits are New York, Pennsylvania, New England, the northern 

 parts of Oliio, Indiana and Illinois, the greater portion of Michigan 

 and Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota and a part of the Canadas. Of 

 all this belt, probably not more than a third of the land is adapted 

 to dairying. The dairy lat)ds are quite irregular in outline, not 

 always continuously together but often detached and not unfre- 

 qnently, if represented on the map, would have the appearance of 

 islands." Mr. Willard further says, " The characteristics of a 

 good dairy country are high, undulating surface, numerous springs 

 and streams of never failing water ; a soil retentive of moisture, a 

 sweet and nutritious herbage that springs up spontaneously and 

 continues to grow with great tenacity ; a rather low average 

 temperature, frequent showers rather than periodical rains or 

 drouths ; sufEcient covering of the ground in winter to protect 

 the grass roots, so that the herbage may be permanent and endur- 

 ins:." These characteristics and conditions are each and all as 

 fully carried out in the climate, soil and location of Maine as in 

 any other locality in the dairy belt, and in many of them our State 

 is decidedly ahead. 



The geological formation of Maine is peculiarly appropriate for 

 a good dairying country, with its granite and slate, its lime and 

 sandstone, and its mineral wealth, the developing of which makes 

 employment for many hands and opens good home markets for all 

 the products of the dairy. 



The history of Eastern farmlands goes to show that no class of 

 farming has paid so well, as no other lands bear so high price as 

 those of the dairy districts ; the reasons why the dairy lands bear 

 so high price and are so valuable are that they are of more limited 

 extent. Second, The grasses are of great value and have fewer 

 enemies to contend with, and they give the most valuable results 

 for the labor and capital expended ; and they give the most valu- 

 able results for any series of years. Third, That dairy farms can 

 be carried on at less expense. Fourth, That they are constantly 

 increasing in fertility and so in value. Fifth, That the products 



