No. 4.] MILK. 51 



known, as stated by the speaker, that milk is to-day one of 

 the, if not the, lowest-priced food on the market ; and there 

 is no reason whj^ a fair price should not be paid for it. 



We want the farmer to adopt these sanitary methods ; we 

 are anxious to see it done ; but I don't myself see just how 

 it is to be done. I don't believe there is any profit in it, 

 when he does it ; yet I do thoroughly believe that, in order 

 to get the consumer to pay on his end, the producer has got 

 to keep his end up ; and there is no question but what it is 

 being done to an extent that it never has before, and yet 

 the retail price of milk in Boston is not increased. I don't 

 refer, of course, to the " slop shops," so called, where milk 

 has been sold for 3 and 4 cents a quart, and where unsani- 

 tar}^ conditions have existed to a certain degree ; I refer to 

 the hard-workimj farmer throughout the State, who does his 

 best to deliver his milk to the contractor in perfect condi- 

 tion. The city end has got to be educated; and I am 

 inclined to think that the State Board of Agriculture cannot 

 do a better service to the farmer than in trying to convince 

 the city-bred man and woman of the value of this food. 



One other point in the earlier })art of the address has im- 

 pressed itself upon my mind, and that is, in reference to the 

 soiling system, — the providing of green food to the cattle 

 throughout the season. With the peculiarities of this cli- 

 mate, I don't l)elieve that any man living can provide such 

 food throujyhout the season. lie can have his o-reen food 

 coming regularly, to be sur(^ ; and his regular suppl}' has got 

 to be taken care of, if he is to adopt the soiling system. 

 But what of the bad season ? There is only one way he can 

 adopt this system, and that is by putting enough ensilage in 

 his silos to carry him through the season. But what of a 

 very wet or a very dry season, when the crops which he has 

 planned to follow each other do not follow each other as 

 they should? I say the peculiarities of this climate make 

 the soiling system an impossibility. 



Mr. A. M. Lyiman (of Montague) . I am glad to empha- 

 size ^vhat Mr. Ellis has said in regard to this education 

 among the farmers and the producers of milk, which seems 

 so necessary. There has been a thought in my mind for a 



