72 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



dairyman is a poor tiller of the soil. We are spending 

 enormous amounts of money; the farmers of the county of 

 St. Lawrence, where I live, last year sjDent over $1,000,000 

 for cattle foods. When I wanted the granges in that section 

 to send $5 apiece as a part of an organization movement to 

 further the business in its every detail in northern New York, 

 they said they were too poor ; and yet those men are even ship- 

 ping alfalfa hay from Colorado. We must stop buying so 

 much. 



I think there are two methods of escape, depending upon 

 the individual. One is the production on the farm of every- 

 thing which the cow eats ; that will be the method for one class 

 of men. Another, and the way that works best with me, is 

 the production of some crop of such high value per acre 

 that it will help to purchase some of the better and more val- 

 uable concentrates with which to feed, and so increase the 

 production of milk. But wdiat do both methods mean ? Bet- 

 ter soil care, higher crop production, better tillage. 



A few weeks ago I had a tillage plow shipped to me at the 

 college, which proved to me how poor our methods are. It 

 turned up 15 inches of as fine, loose soil as you would wish. 



I do not wish to discuss the machine at present, for we 

 have not yet attained results. We harvested 400 bushels of 

 potatoes to the acre this year, but our methods were out of 

 date. We ought to take a lesson from the Germans ; they get 

 500 to 600 bushels of potatoes to the acre, because they till 

 the soil. The dairyman must learn this, and it matters little 

 whether he learns it by growing crops especially adapted for 

 the production of milk, or by growing other crops. Alfalfa 

 is one of the best crops for milk production, and it is not at 

 all a climatic proposition. It can be grown as well in Massa- 

 chusetts as in the west or south, except that the warmer the 

 season the better the opportunity is for a large crop; but it is 

 a soil question, and you and I must study soil questions. 



Just a word of caution: the fruit men and truck farnun-s 

 are getting more money than the dairymen, and on higher- 

 priced land. The only reason for one class of agricultural 

 industry making more profit than another is that the 

 individuals back of the business are better organized, and do 



