58 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Dr. G. M. TwiTCiiELL (of Augusta, Me.). I did not 

 need a hint from your worthy secretary yesterday to turn 

 my attention to this winter meeting. For the past ten 

 years it has been my good fortune to be able to be present 

 with you at all but one or two of your annual sessions. As 

 I read the programme over, and saw in the list of valuable 

 papers to be presented, one by the well-known expert, a 

 desire sprung within to go back and meet again the old 

 friends who have been engaged in this work for so many 

 years. Chance favored, and I was able, by riding last 

 night, to spend this afternoon with you, and to listen to 

 the honorable ex-secretary, who always spoke by the book 

 and always gave us something to remember. 



There are two or three points in his admirable paper 

 which I want to touch upon. He says you determine the 

 value of a dairy cow during the first six months, or early in 

 its life. I would say, during the first six months of her 

 existence. I firmly believe that the time has come when we 

 must realize that the mental influence of the man is the chief 

 power in the control and development of the herd, and I 

 believe we should feel that that must be exerted from the 

 first. We have been living through the objective mind of 

 the owner and the subjective mind of the cow, until she has 

 reached a point in dairy development where it seems to me 

 a forward step must be taken by the man at the helm. "We 

 must enter into a clearer comprehension of the essentials 

 which enter into a successful dairy cow of to-day, because it 

 is of to-day and with to-da}^ we have to deal. I think if 

 you will read some of the papers presented ten or twelve 

 years ago you will see that the standard of production that 

 was set at that time has already been passed. We should 

 measure the quality of our herds to-day by the highest 

 standard reached by any individual member of that herd, and 

 not by the poorest. If it is possible for us to open the wa}'- 

 in the breeding of to-morrow by raising the calves, we will 

 surely raise the standard of production of the dairy cow of 

 the next generation. In order for this to be possible, it 

 seems to me that we must all of us have a larger proportion 

 of cow-intelligence. She is something more than a simple 

 machine, to take food that we give her and transform it into 



