140 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



THE BETTER COW. 



By W. F. McSparran, Furniss, Pa. 



Dairying has become such an important branch of American 

 farming, especially in the eastern states, that dairymen at large 

 should fully realize its importance both as a trade factor in the 

 commerce of the nation and in its economic relations to the 

 farm. 



It is doubtful, 'however, whether the mass of the dairymen 

 of the country have kept up with the expansion and needs of 

 their business, and this would seem to suggest that all educa- 

 tional efforts bearing upon the business of dairying should be 

 directed toward the farmer or dairyman himself; but really 

 we farmers of this day and generation have been and are so 

 much the victims of "uplifts," of "efficiency," of "experts" and 

 various patronizing and patronal efiforts, that I as one of the 

 sufferers do not have the heart nor the inclination to add the 

 weight of my censure to his burden of sorrows, hence I will 

 discuss the cow and let her owner have a temporary rest. Of 

 course men who are producing and owning, feeding and milk- 

 ing poor cows must get some blame, if not directly at least in- 

 ferentially, in any judgment that passes condemnation on the 

 cow, for the cow, like the stream, cannot rise higher than her 

 source. She is not a free agent. If her feed supply is short and 

 her neck is enclosed by stanchions, there is no way by which 

 she can help herself. When the pastures vanish in the sum- 

 m.er, she would of course help herself to the growing corn or 

 clover in the next field, but there stands the everlasting fence; 

 and however much the cow and I may sympathize with the 

 farmer under all the hard things said about him, the fence 

 that separates the hunger of the cow from the bountiful growth 

 of the corn field stands as proof against him. 



There has always been and no doubt always will be a short 

 supply of good cows, and too many of the other kind. Of 



