Vermont Dairymen's Association. 38 



E. R. Towle : — Brothers, this is a very important question. 

 I am a farmer; brought up on a farm where my father com- 

 menced years ago and I have always been engaged more or less 

 in the keeping of cows. My son is following after me and my 

 grandson is coming in behind. I hope the old farm will be 

 kept in the family for some time yet. We are trying, have 

 always been trying to make good clean milk and to make the best 

 quality of butter and cheese from that quality of milk. Not long 

 ago I heard a man say he could not use the milk his farmer 

 brought from the farm. What the trouble was I don't know, 

 but the milk was so poor he said he could not use it. I remem- 

 ber carrying some butter one winter to a dealer and he said, 

 "Your butter does not have a stable flavor to it." Well, I 

 thought that was a pretty good compliment. It was in the win- 

 ter when it needs the greatest care to get good,, pure, clean 

 milk. I furnished the butter to the neighbors or people in the 

 village that wanted it. There was no fault found with it, al- 

 though it was made in the winter. Every farmer should have 

 time in the winter to take care of his cows ; it will pay to keep 

 them clean. You can have good air but it is necessary they 

 should be warm enough ; and the bedding — that is another 

 very important part. My son beds his cows twice a day, morn- 

 ing and night, and I find no trouble when I milk in having 

 the milk as clean as it is in the summer, and the cows look much 

 better if they are kept clean. I can remember when the opposite 

 was altogether the rule, and if you went in behind a row of cows 

 they did not look attractive. Now I like to see cows look well, 

 and we must keep them clean and looking well if we are going 

 to have good milk, and we must have good milk if we are going 

 to carry it to the cheese or butter factory. That is the starting 

 place to get good butter, for good people who buy milk 

 want good milk, and if they buy butter or cheese they want to 

 have it right and they are willing to pay for it. 



If we are going to make butter at home on the farm we want 

 to attend to all the details and it should begin with the milk. 

 We hope the farmers will be interested in the discussion of these 

 things because they are all of great value to us. 



Brother farmers, I am glad to see so many of you here at 

 the first session of the meeting; it argues well for the success 

 of the following meetings, and I hope as the sessions go by each 

 one will grow in interest, and we shall carry home with us some 

 ideas that will put forth fruit during the coming year. There 

 is something here well worth our attention. Let us try to put 

 the new ideas into practice for that is what is going to help. 



A member : — I should like to ask one question, and that is, 

 what good is there if we should be ever so neat and careful with 



