152 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



he would gladly receive them. He said also that he would 

 like to find a farm where the farmer was well enouarh off so 

 that he could feed what he pleased, and where he would be 

 willing to take the pains in the matter which he desired to 

 have taken. I thought I knew such a farm, and found him 

 one, and he has been making experiments through the year. 

 At the same time the Boston inspector of milk said that if I 

 would send him any samples he would gladly anatyze them 

 for me. The contractors have also had from one to three 

 chemists at work all the year, making analyses. Now, the 

 farmers of Massachusetts and New Hampshire are intensely 

 interested in this question, because, if it is possible to bring 

 one cow up to her normal standard, every cow should be 

 brought up. Bat the question is, what shall I do with my 

 tive, six or ten cows? I have heard men dozens of times 

 through the past year say, " We are perfectly willing to 

 feed our cows just as 3^011 say ; we will do the best we pos- 

 sibly can ; we will give them any feed you, say, only tell us 

 how we shall bring them up." They had before them on a 

 slip of paper a d zen or twenty analyses of their milk, and 

 it did not come up to thirteen per cent of solids. What was 

 the matter? In some instances I went round and saw what 

 kind of cows they had, and, more than that, the Board of 

 Health required when any milk was sent for analysis that 

 the man should state how long a time had elapsed since the 

 period of calving, what food was used, and a dozen other 

 circumstances. The result has been that it has been shown 

 over and over again that with all the feed, with all the wis- 

 dom they can exercise, and everything else that they can 

 do, there are certain herds that cannot be raised to the 

 standard percentage of solids. I have carried samples from 

 the same pail of milk, taken at the same instant, to three 

 chemists, the chemist of the State Board of Health, the 

 Boston inspector of milk, and the contractors' chemist, and 

 have had their three results sent to me, and neither one of 

 them knew that the other had a similar sample. There has 

 been no appreciable difference in their results ; and when 

 the feed was changed the amount of solids did not change 

 except in a very slight degree. I take this not from any 

 theory, but from the facts as shown by these analyses. 



