No. 4.] DAIRYING. 81 



much more tlian it costs the ordinary farmer. But I believe 

 that the farmer should receive at least 5 cents a quart for 

 milk, if he is to make a living profit. Whenever there is a 

 question of raising the price of milk to the consumers, a howl 

 goes up and monopoly is cried. The raise doesn't amount to 

 anything to the consumers, — 30 to GO cents a month is not 

 much to them. The Boston Chamber of Commerce is taking 

 an interest in New England as a whole, and one of the next 

 moves of its committee on agriculture will be, I believe, to 

 try to convince the people of Boston, through the newspapers, 

 that they must pay a higher price for milk. The regulations 

 governing the production of milk are not too strict, and should 

 be lived up to ; but the consumer, and not the producer, should 

 pay the cost. It is bad for New England to force a part of 

 her people to live under such conditions that they cannot 

 educate their children or live properly themselves. The labor 

 unions claim that the laboring men and their families are 

 entitled to better conditions, and that is absolutely right ; but 

 these same people come up and say, " The farmers are rob- 

 bing us, and it is a sin and a shame." 



The Chairman. We should like to hear from Mr. Potter. 



Mr. BuKTON W. Potter. It occurred to me, as Professor 

 Cook was talking, that possibly we could accomplish the same 

 result by weighing our milk three times a month and averag- 

 ing the results, as suggested by Professor Hills of Vermont. 

 This is an approximation, but accurate enough to accomplish 

 the purpose of showing us whether our cows are profitable or 

 unprofitable; and if we can establish substantially the same 

 thing with nine times less labor, it seems to me it will be 

 worth while to save that labor. In regard to witch grass, I 

 have discovered by accident how to kill witch grass ; you know 

 all great discoveries are made by accident. It never occurred 

 to me that witch grass was an asset; if it is, my farm is 

 worth a good deal more than I thought. I planted potatoes 

 on a field where there was a good deal of witch grass. It was 

 soon evident that the potatoes would cost three or four times 

 what they would bring, if we fought that witch grass; so I 

 plowed them under, witch grass and all, and sowed Japanese 



