No. 4.] MODERN DAIRYING. 109 



of them every day. Each patron's cream is tested two or 

 three times a week, and the net returns for the month arc 

 apportioned according to the Babcock test, and it has worked 

 very satisfactorily. Of course some men get more when 

 the spaces are counted, and some less. The longer the milk 

 has stood, the less cream in bulk and the less number of 

 spaces. The cream of the first patron the cream gatherer 

 came to in the morning had been set the shortest time, and 

 would necessarily have a greater bulk of cream and be in- 

 ferior in quality to that set several hours longer. This 

 method does away with that objection, and has worked the 

 past year to the perfect satisfaction of the patrons. 



Mr. S. A. Hickox (of South Williamstown) . The gov- 

 ernor advised that we use ensilage for summer food for our 

 cows. The thought struck me very favorably. I believe 

 the governor is right on that point, but I wish he would first 

 get the farmers of Massachusetts ready to raise ensilage for 

 their winter food. I believe it is a problem yet to be solved, 

 how the Massachusetts firmer shall carry his herds through 

 the long, severe winter that we are subject to. The price 

 obtained for hay on the market is robbing the farmers of 

 the fertility that they so much need. They sell the hay be- 

 cause they can get more ready money than they can to put 

 it through the cow, the machine they keep to convert it into 

 dairy product, and then compare the dairy product with what 

 they get for the crude material on the market. They say 

 they can get the money easier through the system of selling 

 li iy. Do we consider what we sell when we sell hay? I 

 wish the farmers would look at the experiment station re- 

 ports, and see how much plant food they have sold in a ton 

 of hay. I believe this point is worth consideration. 



Mr. Bancroft (of Ellington, Conn.). There is one point 

 I wish to emphasize, and that is, the keeping of so many 

 dairy cows that are unprofitable. It is estimated that one- 

 third of all the cows in New England are kept at a loss, 

 one-third pay cost of keeping and the last third pay a profit. 

 We must produce our food at the least possible expense. 

 As a representative of one of the largest creameries in New 

 England, the Ellington Creamery, 1 want to say that we 



