54 THIRTIETH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



1898 shows a range in value of cows fully as marked, the best 

 cows producing a pound of butter at the cost of ten cents per 

 pound and the poorest at a cost of thirty-eight cents. These 

 figures indicate the actual difference in cows under the same 

 high feed and good care. With the manufacturer of dry goods 

 the cost of producing a yard of cloth is the determining factor 

 in the question of his profit or loss, similarly the cost of pro- 

 ducing a pound of butter is the determining factor in the profit 

 or loss of the dairy man. These carefully made experiments 

 reported from these stations furnish further proof, if any were 

 needed, that there is a fixed organic difference in dairy cows 

 and that they vary in their usefulness from those that yield 

 a handsome profit down to those that are being worked at an 

 actual loss to their owners. I know of no better way to de- 

 termine the value of our cows than the weight of the milk and 

 the Babcock test. 



" President Pierce. This subject certainly is one of interest 

 to every private dairyman as well as the creamery man. We 

 will take up the discussion at this time and I will call upon 

 Mr. George C. Wright of Westminister, a practical dairyman 

 to open the discussion. 



Mr. Wright. My efforts have been largely along the line 

 of private dairying rather than creamery work, Mr. Vail's 

 ideas apply as well to one as to the other. The past year has 

 presented to the dairymen of Vermont, more strongly than for 

 a great many years, the advantages of private dairying. 

 There is hardly a town in the state of Vermont that has been 

 able to get as much dairy butter as was desired ; and the price 

 of the strictly first class article has gone up to the top in a 

 great many instances. I do not mean the trade considers the 

 dairy butter as favorably as this, but the field for the dairy- 

 man is not so much along the line of trade, as in his own in- 

 dividual effort. And where a man has taken hold of this mat- 

 ter right he has been successful all along the line. He has 

 had to meet the competition of the creamery trade and this past 

 year there has come back to him a share of the advantages 

 and some of the gain which he has all the time felt was his 

 due, provided, he is a skilful private dairyman. I want to 

 point out to you an example of private dairying which may 

 not be familiar to you all. It is a gentleman who has been 

 engaged in the business for twenty years and has kept abreast 

 of the times. He has held the trade in Brattleboro which he 

 had when he started in, and his butter has been sold in this 

 market in competition with creamery butter, for thirty cents 

 a pound the year round. That is an extreme case, but it shows 

 what can be done in private dairying if a man is adapted to 

 his business, and is well equipped he will get better results if 



