STOCK-HUSBANDRY IN MASSACHUSETTS. 191 



that it Avill pay to raise here for feeding dairy cows and other 

 stock, such as rye, barley, oats and millet, but I would treat 

 these as grass, feeding green or dry as occasion may require. 

 Every yenv adds to my faith in the soiling or stall-feeding 

 system of keeping dairy stock. AYestern farmers are adopt- 

 ing it to a considerable extent to help them through unfavor- 

 able seasons ; and if the system is profitable there, with their 

 cheap, rich lands, it certainly should be many times more so 

 on our longer cultivated soils, and where the good land is 

 worth more per acre. Stall-feeding saves manure, econo- 

 mizes food, and enables us to nearly double the productive 

 capacity of our farm lands. 



In treating the sul)ject of stock-husbandry in Massachu- 

 setts, I have not intended to make it a hobby for the hour, 

 and ignore all other branches of agriculture. There are fiirm- 

 ers in the State who can make more money per acre from 

 garden vegetables, orchards or small fruits as leading crops, 

 than they could make from the feeding of cattle ; but these 

 are not in the majority, and even these, many of them, would 

 do well to keep more or less dairy or other live stock. 

 Some of our market gardeners find they can keep dairy 

 herds of considerable size and with a good profit, largely 

 upon the wastes from their gardens and orchards. Neither 

 did I deem it necessary to dwell upon the mechanical work 

 of making butter or cheese. Of the details of cheese-mak- 

 ing I know very little, practically, and butter-making has 

 been written upon and discussed, and the same old story 

 told and retold so often, that it would seem that it must be 

 tiresome to an audience composed largely of dairy farmers. 

 We all know without havinsf it retold us that ffood -butter 

 calls for good cows, good food, pure water, kind treatment, 

 a proper temperature and a suitable place for setting the 

 milk, early skimming, skilful churning, working, salting, 

 coloring, printing or packing, and the most scrupulous 

 cleanliness everywhere and at all times. " Scrupulous clean- 

 liness," l)y the way, is a term that is not original with me. 

 Then, after butter is made, one, to be successful, must know 

 how to sell it, which is not always the easiest part. A good 

 merchant or peddler is far more likely to be born one, than 

 to acquire proficiency in that line at an agricultural conven- 



