4<» VERMONT DAIRYMEN'S REPORT. 



HOW CAN NEW ENGLAND COMPETE WITH THE 

 WEST IN DAIRYING. 



Prof. Joseph L. Hills, Director, Vt. Agl. Exp. Station, 



Burlington, Vt. 



I have approached the consideration of the subject of 

 Western competition in dairying with some diffidence because 

 my life work lias lain along lines which have not enabled me to 

 take a comprehensive view of subjects dealing intimately with 

 market conditions. To cover such a subject broadly, one needs 

 to occupy the several standpoints of producer, commission man 

 and consumer. I have read, studied, thought, conversed, ex- 

 perimented more or less on the general subject and on allied 

 topics in connection with college, dairy school, farm- institute 

 and experiment station work, but almost always from the stand- 

 point of the producer. If, then, my ideas are one sided, if I 

 lay too much stress on production, if my errors of omission are 

 only less glaring than those of commission, I trust that my 

 hearers will not hesitate to supply the deficiencies in the discus- 

 sion. Pray be free to debate, to controvert, to differ at your 

 hearts' content ; thus will the grain be threshed from the straw. 



Lies were classified once by somebody as white lies, black 

 lies and statistics. Again it has been said that while " figgers 

 don't lie, some liars figger." Notwithstanding these strictures, 

 I am going to risk calling your attention for a moment to cer- 

 tain statistics showing the wonderful increase in the dairy indus- 

 try in the West during recent years and the relatively small 

 volume of New England's dairy interests. The only data at all 

 adequate to the purpose are given in the census of 1890, and 

 refer on the one hand to the six New England States, and on 

 the other to the twelve Northern Central States, Ohio, Indiana, 

 Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, 

 North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas, all of 

 which are now largely engaged in dairy husbandry. 



Cozes. There were in 1890 ten times as many cows in the 

 Northern Central States as in the New England States, (New 

 England, 822,001 ; Northern Central States, 8,240,999). During 

 the 40 years from 1850 to 1890, the number of cows in New 

 England increased 35 per cent, while in the same time the 

 number in the Northern Central States was multiplied 527 per 



