]\nLK FARMING. 293 



I say we mean business, and now wc ask yon, the State 

 Board of Agriculture, the State Board of Health, and any 

 other public officials who have anything to do with this 

 matter, that they shall do for the farmers of Massachusetts 

 just exactly what the Boston Milk Inspector does for the 

 consumers of milk in that city. If the producer takes a 

 quart of milk to him and asks him to inspect it he will not 

 do it ; he told me so. He cannot do it ; he cannot protect 

 the producer at all. But the State Board of Health can take 

 3'our milk and tell you whether it is fit to go to Boston or 

 not. We ask that the State Board of Health may be mem- 

 orialized by this Board for such action by them as shall put 

 the producers of milk in Massachusetts on an equal footing 

 with consumers in this respect. 



Now in regard to the law. We want it changed so that a 

 contractor can be prosecuted for having bad milk in his 

 possession just as much as a pedler or a farmer. If you 

 will find me a case where a contractor has been punished by 

 a fine of fifty dollars within two years I will agree to pay 

 you ten dollars, unless it was a case where the contractor 

 pedled milk also. 



The Chairman then called upon Mr. Z. A. Gilbert, 

 Secretary of the Maine State Board of Agriculture. 



Mr. Gilbert. Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, — I am 

 here only to acknowledge your call at this time and to 

 express thanks for the compliment tendered to me. I am 

 here primarily for the purpose of gaining something of 

 inspiration from meeting with you farmers here assembled, 

 and also to gain something in the way of information which 

 may aid me in carrying on a similar work in my own State. 

 I wish to congratulate you at this time, and especially your 

 Secretary, on the excellent programme which he has suc- 

 ceeded in bringing out and on the hio;h character of the 

 papers which have been presented. They certainly are a 

 compliment to his good judgment and a high compliment to 

 those who have presented them. It would be interesting if 

 I had the time to refer to some of the salient points, and I 

 will venture to do so in one direction, and that onl}'. 



I have been especially interested in the matter of business 

 principles applied to agriculture. I feel that this is a feature 



