128 BOARD OF AGKICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Milk has got to bring in our markets a higher price than has 

 been the custom. We must educate the consumers up to 

 expect to pay that price, and that lias got to be done before 

 the farmer can do very much toward raising sanitary milk. 

 The price must be increased, and that increase has got to go 

 to the producer ; but I don't know just how that is to be 

 done. 



Mr. Taft. Let me answer the question, — don't make it. 



]VIi\ Ellis. They can bring milk from a distance these 

 days, and they would do it. The contractors can get all 

 the milk they want, and it is only a question with us of 

 taking what they give or going without. 



Dr. Hills. The contractors now control quite a number 

 of creameries in Vermont for that very purpose. And there 

 is another proposition. I feel fairlj^ confident that inside of 

 the next ten years we shall have dry milk that will be as 

 salable as the liquid, — milk that will keep in dried form. 

 And when that time comes, — it has alread}^ come with 

 skim milk, and there are many bright minds working on 

 the problem,: — the competition will not be limited to com- 

 paratively a few hundred miles about Boston or New York. 



Question. If a herd of grade Jerseys averaged but 110 

 pounds of butter, what is the trouble with the herd ? 



Dr. Hills. The cow census was not carried out by the 

 Vermont station, and I personally did not see this or any 

 of the herds. The probability is that the trouble with the 

 herd was more with its manager than with the cows. I 

 think if cows could vote, or could speak, they would ask 

 very often for a new breed of dairymen. 



Question. But the cost of keeping the cows is nearly 

 as high. 



Dr. Hills. Nearly as high as the average, and yet 

 they returned, according to the creamery returns, only 110 

 pounds of butter. Now the chances are that, although 

 those cows were labc^Ued grade Jerseys, the proportion of 

 Jersey blood in them was not large enough to hurt. The 

 chances are, moreover, that the owner was not feeding 

 wisely. A man well up with the times, taking that herd, 

 would be apt to do nuich better with it. 



