IM ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



lilj. Does not this undertaking resemble this task? Can 1,047 

 pounds of butter a year be exceeded? Can a single cow make much 

 more than 30,000 pounds of milk in a year? Can cows be kept better 

 than they are now on some model estates? And can better butter 

 be made than the dollar a pound brand of the Darlingtons or better 

 milk than the 12 cents a quart variety from Francisco's farm? And 

 can they ever be sold at better prices? Probably not; but there may 

 be larger numbers of the Pieterje lis and Signal Lily Flaggs; more 

 I^vl P. Mortons, Frauciscos, Gurlers and Darlingtons, and, I believe, 

 more dollars. 



Let us argue the matter somewhat. Many of the things, let me say, 

 have been told over and over again by more eloquent lips than mine. 

 Some of these old stories, however, bear repetition. Everyone has 

 not learned the lesson. The Sermon on the Mount was spoken nearly 

 1900 years ago, and has been repeated time without number in the 

 ears of the multitudes; and yet there are rascals in the world. 



BETTER cows. 



Some few months ago I chanced to run across ''The Agricultural 

 Reader," i>ublished in 1821. It contained some fifty articles of all 

 sorts related to farming, including directions for the manufacture 

 of sundry beverages, for the erection of lightning rods, for "the appre- 

 hension of fruit stealers as well as indicating the means whereby one 

 might know how to detect a poor farmer. If most of the ideas in 

 this book of three-quarters of a century ago were re-dressed in the 

 language of to-day and reprinted in modern type they would pass 

 current as the notions of 1901. Of the poor farmer it is said ''He 

 grazes his mowing laud late in the fall and his pastures early in the 

 spring, and consequently ruins both. Some of his cows are much 

 past their prime. He neglects to keep the dung and the ground from 

 the sills of his buildings, and it costs hiiu twenty dollars to make re- 

 pairs when one dollar's worth of work would have been sufficient if 

 performed at a leisure time ten years before. He sows and plants 

 his land until it is exhausted before he thinks of manuring. * * * 

 He says he cannot farm it for want of money. * * * You will 

 perhaps hear of his groaning about hard times frequently in a bar- 

 room. * * * He will tell you he 'never had no luck.' " Does it 

 not sound familiar? Now' as to cows: "It would be well for every 

 person to ascertain the qualities of the milk of every cow individually 

 as soon as she is turned into the dairy ; otherwise he may proceed for 

 years without knowing that he is subjecting himself to great expense 

 without deriving any advantage from it." Rules and methods are 

 laid down whereby this might be done. 



Seventy-six years ago this notion — that there were cows and cows 

 — was abroad in the land; yet there are to-day thousands of dairymen 

 who have not realized it. Some six years ago the Vermont Board of 



