56 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



of deposit will fail. Let the farmer profit by the lessons taught 

 in the success of the capitalist regarding the power of accumu- 

 lation. 



And when he buys commercial manures, let him do it with a 

 view, not merely to larger crops for the year, but in view of the 

 fact that these larger crops, if rightly used, will enable him to put 

 on much more manure the following year, ivithout buying it, 

 being furnished him by the crops grown by virtue of his purchase. 



Mr. Gilbert presented the following paper on 



Dairy Farming — its Relation to General Farm Improvements. 



Tlio keeping of cows for dairy purposes has been too much 

 neglected by the farmers of Maine, and the subject of dairy 

 farming in its advantages to the successful improvement of our 

 exhausted fields and neglected pastures, as well as its relation to 

 the renovation of the farmer's treasury, has been almost entirely 

 neglected by those wide awake, progressive farmers, who are 

 laboring for the advancement of agriculture in our State, and the 

 consequent improvement of the yeomanry in all that contributes 

 to their happiness, success, and welfare. It is true that the 

 Secretary of the Board called the attention of the farmers of the 

 State to this important subject, by very able and valuable papers 

 in his Reports for 1862 and 1863, but since that, as well as before, 

 it has received but little attention or encouragement, in the public 

 prints or otherwise, by our leading agriculturists. Other branches 

 of farming have been dwelt upon, and held up to the farmer in all 

 their attractive lights, but the dairy has remained in the shadow 

 of what must be supposed to be more attractive pictures. 



I propose to consider in this paper the relation of the dairy to 

 successful agriculture, both in its connection with the improve- 

 ment ill tlie productiveness of the soil and the consequent increase 

 in the value and attractiveness of the farm, and in its relation to 

 an increase of the farmer's wealth when measured by the standard 

 of dollars and cents. The production of a choice article of butter, 

 notwithstanding that the truly "gilt-edged" article is very 

 attractive to the eye, and still more inviting to the palate, and the 

 detail of manufacturing a first-class article of cheese, will form no 

 part of this treatise. 



It is a fact often adverted to, and one which many of the 

 members of this Board have referred to during this session, that 



