No. 4.] NEW ENGLAND AGRICULTURE. 93 



liiiil) yearly (letcniiine.s the (luulity of the fruit, and this 

 comes only by workiiio- and feeding the soil. 



The milk industry is and must be, \vith the great bulk of 

 Massachusetts farmers, the chief means ol' su})port, and 

 therefore i)laces exacting demands ui)()n the individual. 

 The margins of profit arc narrowing as wider zones are 

 reached for the daily supply. You realize this, but how are 

 you meeting the difficulty? 



Mr. Ellis tokl vou last year at North Adams that 5,000 

 pounds of milk yearly per cow was the mininuim consistent 

 with profit. Is every three-year-old, and over, in your 

 herds cat)able of exceeding this amount, — practically^ 7 

 quarts daily for 3()5 days? Has the capacity of every cow 

 been ascertained by a study of rations and the weighing of 

 the daily products ? I ask these questions as a business man. 

 You would not keep a hired man ^vho did not earn his wages. 

 Why, then, keep a boarder among your cows for the balance 

 of the herd to sup})ort? If sentiment is to govern, these 

 interrogation marks signify nothing ; but if business enters 

 in, they demand consideration. 



You are making milk on a narrow margin, — there can be 

 no question of this fact ; and you must continue to do so in 

 the future, surely until a better seaitiment of co-operation is 

 felt inside and outside the present milk belt. Where to 

 economize is the question, — one not to be settled on this 

 platform, for no man can answer it for another. If it were 

 possible that this and other problems connected with profit- 

 able milk production could be solved by the scientist, and 

 rations and practices mathematicall}^ correct given to the 

 world, the inmiediate future would Avitness a o-reat milk- 

 producing trust organized, and the work be carried on after 

 the methods of the Standard Oil Company. 



Every man must be a law unto himself, so long as he is 

 dealing with intelligent animals, and his profit is to come 

 from the stimulation of the organs of maternity. At the 

 same time, certain principles suggest themselves for consid- 

 eration ; and, first, the dairyman must never forget that in 

 seeking an increase of milk he must come into closer inti- 

 macy with motherhood. You cannot force milk production, 



