190 AGRICULTURE OF MAINS. 



Q. I was going to ask Dr. Pearl if the nature of alfalfa and 

 the nature of common clover are not quite a lot alike? Would 

 not soil that would spontaneously raise sweet clover be a good 

 soil to raise alfalfa on? 



Dr. Pearl. — I think that would be the best place to try it 

 first. I think it is probable that alfalfa is harder to grow than 

 sweet clover. It is not so hardy and will not stand, the same 

 treatment. The idea of growing it on sweet clover land is a 

 good one. 



REFLECTIONS ON SOME RECENT DAIRY EVENTS. 



By Geo. M. Whitaker, Sc. D., Chief Market Milk Section, 

 Dairy Division, Bureau of Animal Industry, National Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. 



One who has read New England newspapers during the last 

 year might think that New England milk producers are subject 

 to oppression and abuse which are peculiar to New England. 

 But those of us who are so situated as to study the milk field 

 in a national way find the same unrest existing all the way across 

 the continent. Producers for the New York market and for 

 the Chicago market are also sure that they are the victims of 

 the extortion of powerful corporations and of bad local con- 

 ditions. In the state of Washington on the Pacific coast the 

 mJlk producers for the cities of Seattle and Spokane have the 

 same discontent and believe that there is no profit in the pro- 

 duction of milk. I have found many southern milk producers 

 retailing their own product at 10 cents per quart and grumbling 

 at their circumstances as peculiarly bad. If New England con- 

 d.tions are bad it is not the result of local hardship or oppres- 

 sion but of nation-wide causes. 



This state of affairs may well attract the thoughtful study 

 of friends of the dairymen in all parts of the country. What 

 are the facts? J. M. W. Kitchen, M. D., of New Hampshire, 

 in a letter to the Country Gentleman, October 6th, 1910, said: 

 "It is a fact that American agriculture as a whole is not pros- 

 perous . . . farm hatred has become widespread; ... so 

 far as the rank and file of farmers are concerned no pursuit in 

 the whole land pays so little return for the labor, brains and 

 capital expended as does farming." 



Is this true? Is it applicable to dairying? Is the dairy busi- 



