DIGEST OF STATE REPORTS. 381 



from a spring on to a field that cut but half a ton to the acre, and 

 thereby increased the yield to l-J tons. He believed that at no distant 

 day irrigation would be largely practiced by the farmers of the State. 



in the course of his remarks, Mr. Dunham said that some degree of 

 knowledge of what constitutes the food of plants seems indispensable 

 to any well-conducted system of producing them in the greatest per- 

 fection ; and such knowledge seems most likely to be obtained by 

 minutely examining their structure and carefully observing the manner 

 of their growth. The indispensable agency of water in the growth of 

 plants has been universally acknowledged, and could not be overlooked 

 by the most careless observer. But while this universal agency has 

 been acknowledged, it is believed that a very inferior office has been 

 assigned to it from that v/hich it really performs. It has been consid- 

 ered as the mere vehicle which carried the nutritious particles of other 

 substances, while it in reality was contributing much the largest por- 

 tion of the actual nourishment to the plants which annually clothe the 

 earth in living green. 



After stating the results of certain experiments to prove that water 

 constitutes a large portion of the food of plants, he says : 



With so favorable a history of irrigation for so many centuries and from so many 

 countries, it seems wonderfully strange that, situated as favorably as ^^e are for trying 

 the experiment upon our ovrn soil, and sufl'ering as we do from drought, so little is 

 actually known, and that so few experiments have been tried. It may bo that from 

 some condition of our soil or climate irrigation may not be as successful here as 

 in some other countries, but from what few facts I can gather, the success is such aa 

 to warrant a very general experiment in every part of our State. 



Prof. W. O. Atwater, in a brief address, explained the advantages 

 derived from the various systems of irrigation, as practiced in European 

 countries. 



Mr. George E. Brackett read a paper on associated dairying in Maine. 

 Eeferring to Waldo County, ho said that two years previous — that is, 

 in February, 1872 — the farmers had heard a rumor that a cheese-factory 

 was in operation somewhere in the State, but how or where was a ques- 

 tion of doubt ; but in the summer of 1873 four factories had been in 

 successfal operation in the county, seven more were organized for work 

 the coming season, and others were in the process of incubation. Of 

 the advantages accruing to the farmer from this system of assoeiated 

 dairying, he says: 



Let us consider briefly the subject of associated dairying in some of its most impor- 

 tant bearings. It is a fact and a crying evil, that a majority of the farms in Maine are 

 deteriorating— growing poorer and less valuable year by year. And why? Because 

 the original richness and fertility of our soils have been wholly or partly exhausted by 

 our farming system, which bi^s taken from them, year by year, more than has been 

 returned. We extract and sell ofl" raw material— hay, potatoes, and grain— neglecting 

 to make corresponding returns ; hence wo are constantly impoverishing the soil. 

 Associated dairying put in practice would bo a step toward stopping this drain from 

 the farm. Cheese-factories require milk ; more milk means more cows ; the keeping 

 of more cows requires the consitmption of the hay and grain, or the farm-products, upon 

 the farm ; all of which means more manure, which must be returned to the soil, so that 

 every season a cheese-factory operates in a neighborhood the farms supplying milk are 

 growing just so mueh richer and more valuable. This, in my opinion, is the strongest 

 argument yet adduced in favor of cheese-factories ; this gradual and sure, though small, 

 increase in the fertility of our farms. 



Then it is no doubt a fact that the more condensed the form in which we can market 

 our farm-products the better it ])ays. * * * Take my section of the State as an 

 example. The cost of hauling or transporting a ton of farm products to market at 

 Belfast, from most of the towns in Waldo County, where cheese-factories are organized, 

 is about .$2. Thus it costs !i!'.2 to market a ton of pressed hay, which is one of our prin- 

 cipal farm products, aud ;if2 to marlcot a ton of cheese. In one case the value of the 

 product is $;16 ; in the other, $320. In ether words, it costs |40 to market $320 worth 

 of hay, and only $2 to market $320 worth of cheese. 



