114 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Why, I heard, not many years ago, a president of one of the 

 best agricultural societies iu Massachusetts, apologizing to his 

 invited guests at the dinner-table, for the moderate number of 

 animals in the cattle-pens, and gave as a cause for it, that the 

 condition of the animals, on account of the summer's drought, 

 was such that the owners preferred keeping them at home to 

 exhibiting them before the public. 



I do not refer to this particular case in a spirit of reproach 

 upon the farmers of that particular locality more than another, 

 for what the president said of their cattle might with equal 

 justice have been said of others through the State, and 

 throughout the whole country, as far as the drought extended. 



Now, can we as farmers, or as dairymen, afford to rest our 

 chances of success on the hopes of an extra favorable or even 

 an average season ? Certainly not. We must calculate for 

 the worst, and then, if the season proves favorable, our profit 

 will be all the more satisfactory. Just how each one should 

 provide against these seasons of short supply, is a question 

 which each must solve for himself; but if he will set out 

 with the determination to feed his cattle all they need, every 

 day in the year, he will succeed, unless prevented by extraor- 

 dinary circumstances oyer which he would be expected to 

 have no control. We are too much in the habit of depending 

 upon the almost spontaneous productions of our pastures and 

 fields for keeping our stock, and we make too little preparation 

 for a reserve force in the shape of green rye, oats or barley, 

 and green-corn fodder grown specially for forage. 



We also let our land lie idle too much of the time, when it 

 might be producing some kind of food for our cattle. We 

 get but one crop in a year, when there is ample time for two 

 or more, and thus secure but half the interest on our capital 

 that is due us, while at the same time we are using and paying 

 taxes on double the amount of acres required. 



By attending to these and many other sources of waste, we 

 should be able to gain another point that is at present much 

 needed by the dairy farmer of Massachusetts, — that of reducing 

 the cost of production. 



I have been talking — perhaps you may say dreaming — of 

 the future of dairying in our Commonwealth ; have indicated 

 the standard to which I believe we may honorably aspire. 



