138 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



March 



will meet with the favorable consideration of the 

 farmers of the several towns, as also the best 

 method of raising and selling milk. 

 Lexington, Jan. 24, 1859. A Subscriber. 



Remarks. — We have long been surprised that 

 this subject has not received more attention by 

 those directly interested in it. If the milk-buy- 

 ers of Boston and the surrounding cities were 

 aware of the impositions practiced upon ihem, 

 they would rise in their might, establish milk de- 

 pots, employ their own agents, and apply at once 

 to the Legislature for proper officers to inspect 

 the milk brought to them. 



We hope our correspondent — whose name is 

 before us — will arouse the community to a sense 

 of the need of important changes, and we assure 

 him that numerous enterprising and intelligent 

 men are ready to act, and are only waiting for 

 some one to lead oif in the matter. Under a prop- 

 er system of buying and selling, purchasers in 

 the cities would get better milk, and jreore of it, at 

 a less price than they now do, while the profits 

 that are now divided among the go-betweens, 

 would partly go to the producers, where they be- 

 long. 



The farmer cannot live by the prices he now 

 gets for his milk ; it would be worth fifteen to 

 twenty per cent, more to him made into butter — 

 while such a system of corruption has crept into 

 the trade, and milk itself, that children cannot 

 live upon it, nor all honest men thrive upon it, 

 who are engaged in its purchase and sale 



We have intelligent and active committees up- 

 on agricultural subjects in our present Legisla- 

 ture, and we now suggest to our friends to make 

 another effort. 



First, To settle the law beyond all question and 

 cavil, as to what a legal liquid gallon is in 

 this Commonwealth. Whether it is a wine 

 gallon of 231 cubic inches, or a beer gallon 

 of 282 cubic inches. The people do not un- 

 derstand it. 



Secondly, To legalize the "can" as a measure of 

 capacity, because the necessities of the trade 

 demand it just as much as the grain trade 

 demands a fixed legal capacity for the half 

 bushel. 



The "can" is now a sort of hydra-bellied mon- 

 ster that will take in only seven quarts in the 

 country, but conceives so rapidly on the way to 

 the city, that on arriving there, it will disgorge 

 ten quarts with the greatest ease ! 



TJiirdly, To ask the legislature to legalize cer- 

 tain persons to inspect milk offered for sale, 

 and affix heavy penalties upon those who 

 adulterate it, when that fact shall be proved 

 unor tbom. 



Now is the time to act. Pour in your petitions 

 to the Legislature in the course of next week. 

 We subjoin the form of a petition, so that all 

 may have it to act upon at once. 



TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTA- 

 TIVES, IN GENERAL COURT ASSEMBLED. 



Your Petitioners respectfully represent, that 

 the Farmers of this Commonwealth are deeply 

 interested in the production and sale of Milk ; 

 that the number of Cows kept within our borders 

 is about 150,000, producing annually a quantity 

 of Milk, valued at the low rate of three cents per 

 quart, and allowing four quarts per day to each 

 I Cow, at the sum of six millions Jive hundred and 

 \ seventy thousand dollars a year; that Milk for 

 jthe Markets is generally delivered by the produ- 

 cers in Tin Cans furnished by the purchasers, 

 said to contain a specified number of quarts; 

 jthat many of such purchasers still continue to 

 juse the Ale Quart, which is not recognized by 

 the Statutes now in force, while others use the 

 j Wi7ie Quart, which is the measure prescribed by 

 , law ; and that great inequality, injustice, and 

 I fraud, both to the jiroducers and consumers, re- 

 I suit from such confusion of the standards of 

 measure, the Cans varying from 8^ to 8| quarts. 



Wherefore, they pray that it may be prescribed 

 by law, under adequate penalties, that no Cans 

 shall be used in the delivery or sale of Milk, ex- 

 cept such as shall be legally sealed by the town or 

 city sealer of weights and measures, and marked 

 with a figure or jigures denoting the capacity of 

 such Can in quarts by Wine Measure, with a 

 proper allowance to be by law prescribed, for the 

 reduction of the bulk of the milk in cooling. 



And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will 

 ever pray. 



For the New Enf.'land Farmer. 

 MAINE BOARD OP AGBICULTUBB. 



The Maine Board of Agriculture met at the 

 State Farm, Jan. 19th. Robert Martin, of West 

 Danville, was chosen President, N. T. True, of 

 Bethel, Vice President, S. L. Goodale, Secretary. 

 The Board, representing twenty-four societies, 

 held two sessions a day and a public discussion ev- 

 ery evening, to continue for ten days. The Board 

 is an able body of men made up of practical and 

 intelligent farmers who are earnest in their la- 

 bors to elevate the condition of agriculture. 

 Reporters are constantly present who spread 

 broadcast through the papers, among the people, 

 every important point discussed, so that the whole 

 agricultural population of the State are at once, 

 to a great extent, on an equal footing with the 

 members of the Board. This we think is an im- 

 portant point. Shut up the doings of such a 

 Board in Reports merely, and the few only will 

 be the wiser. The last year, topics were assigned 

 to each meml)er to be reported and incorporated 

 into the Secretary's Report of the present year, 

 which to Maine fai-mers is becoming a most im- 

 portant document. 



The close observer of our history will be struck 

 with the marked improvements that are going 

 on in many parts of our State, in agriculture. 

 We have better stock, barns, deeper and more 

 careful tillage, more reading, thinking men every 

 year. Farmers' Clubs have sprung up even here. 



