112 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



of pasture, so that we allow it to grow up in the fall, we keep 

 them on pasture until the 1st of November. Sometimes we 

 pasture j'oung stock out until Christmas. The conditions are 

 not so much different that way. But haven't we been paying 

 too much attention to pasture, anyway? The general feeling 

 all over the country now is that we have been counting too 

 much on the pasture. Of course, it is very economical from 

 the labor standpoint to have the cattle in the pasture, but to 

 get large production we must have something to help it out 

 as soon as the pasture gets short. So even in the west the 

 pasture proposition is getting to be of less importance than 

 formerly, and lots of the farmers there are commencing to use 

 silage to help out the summer pasture. 



The second question the gentleman asked was in regard to 

 the milking machine. Now, I do not know whether I care to 

 make any definite answer in regard to that, but I will answer 

 the gentleman about as I answer the many inquiries we receive 

 on that subject, and that is in this way: I would not want 

 any one to buy a milking machine on my recommendation by 

 any means. I would recommend any one who is interested in 

 milking machines to go and see one in operation and decide 

 for himself, after watching as long as he wanted to, whether 

 he wanted it. My personal feeling is that the milking machine 

 is now a commercial success. I believe if a man has thirty 

 cows or more the milking machine is an entirely practical 

 thing, and I look for the use of the milking macliine to be very 

 widely extended in the next few years. 



Mr. Wild. I take it that this is a fair, and perhaps more 

 than a fair, representation of the dairj^men of Massachusetts. 

 I have for the past three or four years been reading care- 

 fully the agricultural papers, especially "Hoard's Dairyman" 

 and the "Rural New Yorker," and others, and have become 

 very much interested in the testing of cows and knowing 

 what they are doing. And I would like it put to a vote in 

 this meeting to-day, how many people there are in the dairy 

 business in Massachusetts who are keeping a record of their 

 dairy production, and with your permission, Mr. Cliairman, I 

 would like to ask those who are keeping records to rise so that 

 they can be counted. [Rising vote taken.] 



