100 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



We arc often warned by agricultural writers and by agri- 

 cultural talkers, against spending our time in giving opinions, 

 when facts are what arc needed. The truth is, we have very 

 few facts to give. It costs something to collect facts, and 

 when collected they are worth but little until they are com- 

 pared and worked up by some one who is competent to use 

 facts, and to deduce from them results which may be of 

 practical use. 



A cow of one of my neighbors came from the pasture the 

 other evening with an inflamed udder, and the milk, which 

 was thick and clotted, caused the cow pain in the drawing; 

 but after an application of a little salted lard or a bacon- 

 rind to the surface, and a spoonful of saltpetre in her feed, 

 followed by a good night's rest in a comfortable stable, she 

 came out in the morning all right again, and has had no 

 attacks of ijar^et since. 



And so my neighbor tells me, or you, or he writes to his 

 newspaper, that salted lard, or a beacon-rind, rubbed on the 

 bag, with a spoonful of saltpetre given in the feed, cured 

 his cow of s^ar^et. This is one kind of a fact. The cow was 

 sick, certain remedies were applied, and she was well again. 

 But, on the same evening, one of my cows was attacked in 

 precisely the same way, and the next morning, she too was 

 all risrht ajjain, but without havinsr been doctored at all. 

 Now, which of these facts is worth the most, or is either 

 of them worth anything? 



We are told that experiments are needed, and it is true 

 enough, they are needed ; but how many of us are competent 

 to make experiments that shall be worthy of the name, or of 

 the object sought ; and if competent, how many have the time, 

 the means, or the untiring patience required for such work? 



The " Vermont Dairymen's Association " has reached its 

 seventh year, the "American" its eleventh, each holding pro- 

 tracted meetings where the most intelligent and the most 

 experienced dairymen in the Avhole country annually gather 

 to discuss those many knotty questions which practical dairy- 

 men constantly encounter while pursuing the daily routine of 

 the milk-farm, the butter-room, or the cheese-factory, and 

 yet I believe that the men who have attended those meetings 

 the most constantly are far more modest in their claims to 



