No. 6 DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 197 



Agriculture published stalistics showing that the average production 

 of the Vermont cow approximated 150 pounds yearly. One town re- 

 ported 259 pounds as its average; another hut 1)2 pounds. I have 

 greeted dairymen from the former town at many a meeting. They 

 come every year. I have not seen nor have I ever seen at an agri- 

 cultural meeting a representative of the latter town; yet its dairy- 

 men need light a thousand times more than do the Ryegate farmers. 

 The dilference is not so much in the cows as it is in the men. There 

 is less need of a new breed of dairy cows than of a new breed of 

 dairymen. I am looking for that new breed in the next generation. 



The dairymen of bygone years did not have the best chance in 

 the world to discriminate between the good and the bad cow. The 

 little book from which I have just quoted gave cumberisome rules 

 whereby one might obtain the value of this, that and the other cow. 

 These are all done' away with now. Dr. Babcock's method enables 

 one to tell whether his cows are worth keeping or not. We have not 

 time to go into the details of the Babcock test, but it is not difficult 

 for any dairyman who has either a Babcock of his own, or knows of 

 one that he can use, or can pay 25 cents expressage to send samples 

 to the experiment station to tell the quality of milk his cows give. 

 The Babcock, however, does not tell the whole story. Most people 

 think it does, but they are mistaken. The quantity of milk and the 

 cost of making it are important. A small scales, a Babcock machine 

 and an observing eye constitute the needed apparatus. When pro- 

 perly used in conjunction one with another the results are of the 

 utmost value. 



Some seven or eight years ago the experiment station dairyman 

 left us to take a position upon the farm of a gentleman of whom I 

 think you all have heard — Mr. William K. Vanderbilt. He wrote us 

 some weeks afterward as follows: "I want to tell you what the Bab- 

 cock test has done for Mr. Vanderbilt; it has killed eleven of his 

 cows. Mr. Vanderbilt told me he could not afford to keep cows that 

 didn't pay their way." If Vanderbilt can't afford to keep unprofi- 

 table cows, who can? There is an old adage which says that actions 

 speak louder than words. There are many dairymen who by their 

 actions say they can afford to keep cow^s that don't pay their way. 

 There is no excuse for keeping that class of cows unless they are kept 

 for the pleasure of their company. 



If the farmers of this aud other States would get aw-ay from the 

 antiquated notion that there is such an animal as the general pur- 

 pose cow^, it w^ould be to their advantage. Governor Hoard has said 

 that he was ready to believe in the general purpose cow when the 

 breeder thereof would show him a general purpose dog that would 

 point a partridge, trail a fox, and fight like a bulldog. The simile i» 

 very apt and points a moral. 



A good cow above everything else, unleRS it ht a wii« dairyman, 



