41 



failure because they figured in their line of farming. But Mr. Hickox became 

 a specialist. It was a twenty-cow farm and he put on twenty-five cows and 

 built a good warm cow stable with cemented floors to save all manures. He 

 saved every bit of material that is ordinarily wasted on a farm ; he saved the 

 urine by absorbent, and made compost ; nothing was lost. The manure heap 

 was doubled. He spread these fertilizers on the land and it returned a rich har- 

 vest, but not of corn or grain of any kind. He raised no corn at first and but 

 few potatoes, everything he raised was to produce milk. He astonished his 

 neighbors one day by mowing down half his oat crop when the oats were in the 

 milk and making it into dry fodder. When he couldn't sow oats in season, he 

 sowed barley and cut it down for fodder. He raised a great amount of grass, 

 timothy and clover; he sowed Hungarian grass, he sounded all the resources of 

 agriculture for getting food for cattle, and lately he has made silos and feeds com 

 enailage with excellent results. Now the mortgage of $7,000 is paid, the barns 

 have quadrupled in size and are in excellent repair, and the land is rich and the 

 farm supports seventy cows, all but ten of which will have calves in the Spring. 

 The cattle each average 175 pounds of butter a year, and the present price received 

 is thirty five cents per pound. The average is steadily going up to 200 pounds. 

 The sour milk is fed to calves and swine. Nothing but butter, calves and swine 

 is sold from the farm. He has not bought five tons of commercial fertilizer. 

 There are 50,000,000 pounds of butter used in Massachusetts every year and 

 nearly 10,000,000 pounds are produced in this State. There is a ready market 

 for the best butter at a high price. 



The meeting then adjourned for an hour to partake of a bounteous collation 

 provided in the hall. 



Mr. M. I. Wheeler said that he endorsed nil that had been said about special 

 farming, but he did not forget that all farmers are not situated so that they can 

 carry out that plan. The advantage of the speciality is that a farmer becomes 

 thoroughly acquainted with what he is doing and produces a better result. This 

 applies especially to the dairy. 



Mr. F. K. Hinckley of Lee, was opposed to specialty farming. It is not 

 certain what crop will pay. If a farmer makes a specialty of tobacco and the 

 crop " goes back on him " he is ruined. Farming is overdone, the price of but- 

 ter went down last summer and now the market is loaded. Mr. Hinckley said 

 that he was ready to say that farming doesn't pay. A $10,000 farm won't pay 

 unless he attends well to it. Running in debt for a farm won't pay as a general 

 thing. If farmers are a happy lot of men, as it is said of them, it is because 

 they are contented with nothing. 



President Joseph A. Kline of Egremont, who was chairman of the meeting, 

 told how extensive the dairy industry of the country is and repeated the figures 

 of the census regarding it. 



Mr. Charles Goodrich of Stockbridge, said there are as many as fifteen or 

 twenty kinds of butter in the market. He did not believe that over five per 

 cent, of this amount is gilt edge, ten per cent, choice, twenty per cent, fair, 

 while fifty per cent is grease. This is a disgrace to the farmers who should try 

 to make everything they produce good of its kind. He asked why there was 

 such a difference in butter. Mr. Hickox replied that it was because farmers did 

 not make a speciality of butter-making. Faults will show in butter more than 



