Vekmont Dairymen's Association. 93 



business the better, and I know of no industry where it works 

 to better advantage than in private dairy. If possible, sell direct 

 to the consumer. Many whom I know find a satisfactory market 

 in the towns and villages near which they live. For the past 

 fifteen years very little of our butter has gone through the 

 middleman's hands. We send to families in different cities. 

 Many of our customers we never saw, but those to whom we 

 sent first told their friends where they had their butter from, 

 that it was satisfactory, and advised them to send to us, so that 

 very soon we had customers for all our make. Almost every 

 one has at least one friend in some of the large towns or cities 

 to whom they can send butter, their friend has friends, and if 

 the butter is good, they speak to them about it. Often a good 

 market is made in this way. Once a customer is found, treat 

 him so fairly, send him such good butter, that he will never leave 

 you till he dies or moves away. There is great satisfaction in 

 knowing just where your butter is going each week, and what 

 you will receive for it. There is just as much satisfaction at 

 the other end of the line for the buyer, who knows what he is to 

 get, and what it will cost him. It is a well known fact that 

 when people get accustomed to one dairy of butter, nothing else 

 suits them so well. During the past year many of our farmers 

 have sent their cream to Boston and are satisfied with the re- 

 turns, and when one has no regular market for their butter, 

 and can get the cream to the station without too much expense, 

 I know of no better way to dispose of the product of the dairy, 

 a? long as prices remain as at present, and it is far better for the 

 farm than selling the milk. 



But in whatever form the product goes, let it be of the 

 best, and it will be a long time before there is a surplus in the 

 market of the world, of good butter, cream, horses or men. 



Nor will the time ever come when we will feel obliged to 

 burn any of these products in order to regulate the price, as 

 the cotton growers of the South are now doing. 



President Bruce : — There is an opportunity for discussion of 

 this paper. Are there any questions you want to ask Mr. Gates? 



A Member: — What do you feed your cows? 



Mr. Gates : — We feed one feed in the morning, right after 

 milking, of ensilage, and then after breakfast they are watered 

 and have a feed of hay and in the afternoon they are watered 

 again, and about three o'clock they have two quarts of cotton 

 seed meal apiece and then a feed of the hay, then after the 

 night's milking a feed of corn and oats. We do not feed high. 



