80 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



interesting lecture. The lecturer has not told us all he knows, 

 but he certainly ought to have a little rest. We have with us 

 some large dairymen from whom I know you would like to 

 hear. We would like to hear from Mr. Ellis of ISTewton. 



Mr. George H. Ellis. I am in perfect agreement with 

 nearly all that Professor Cook has said. But there are two 

 or three " don'ts " which I want to interject. In the first 

 place, on the ordinary Xew England farm don't buy nitrogen 

 by cultivating witch grass ; your nitrogen will cost you a great 

 deal more than if you buy it. What crop is the dairyman 

 going to raise with us that he doesn't put in until after the 

 first of June ? You must figure in your crops the cost of labor 

 in cleaning out the witch grass, if you have it. Of course if 

 you have it you should get rid of it. But I do not think you 

 get enough out of your witch grass roots to pay you for your 

 time and trouble, although the more cultivation you put in to 

 kill the witch grass, the better the following crop will be. 



I am more of a believer in pastures on our New Eng- 

 land farms than is the speaker, — perhaps from necessity. 

 Most of us have a good deal of land we cannot cultivate, 

 and it is worth more in pasture than to let it grow up to 

 wood. The test which the speaker offered is not a fair one. 

 You get a great deal more out of the grass to have it fed 

 over several times than when you allow it to make the full 

 growth it will. Change your cattle from pasture to pasture, 

 having three pastures, and allowing each two weeks' rest 

 between grazings, and you will find that the amount of grass 

 you have grown is immeasurably beyond that which the test 

 offered by the speaker would indicate. 



With what he has said as to milk being a by-product I have 

 good reason to be in full accord. I started to manufacture 

 milk, not manure, and undertook to retail a high grade of 

 milk at 8 cents a quart. To be sure, a high grade costs more 

 to produce than the ordinary milk ; but I found it absolutely 

 necessary to go to 9 cents, 10 cents and 11 cents per quart; 

 and my profit in 1908, on $75,000 of sales, was $36. I shall 

 do somewhat better this year. My home farm is in the center 

 of a city, and my cattle are fed at the barns the year around. 

 My hay is purchased hay, and that makes it cost me very 



