120 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



SUMMER AND WINTER FEEDING OF DAIRY COWS.* 



BY PROF. J. W. ROBERTSON, OTTAWA, CAN. 



Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen : I am very glad to 

 be in your State of Massachusetts. That the boundary line 

 referred to is an imaginary one to many of your minds, I 

 am well aware. Your chairman in introducing me this after- 

 noon made one little slip. It illustrates what I mean ; he 

 said " from Toronto." That is two hundred and sixty miles 

 from where I live. When I went to reside at Ottawa, the 

 capital of our Dominion, I received a letter addressed in 

 this fashion, — to myself, "At Ottawa, near Toronto, 

 United States of America." So my correspondent, at any 

 rate, was quite in evidence that the line was imaginary. 



I am very glad to be here this afternoon in response to 

 the invitation of your honorable secretary. My friend, Ex- 

 Governor Hoard of Wisconsin, urged me to attend this 

 convention. He said, "If vou want to meet some of the 

 bright men in agriculture, go to Massachusetts ; " and when 

 I was asked to come and speak to bright men, I had only 

 this consolation, that it is rather pleasanter, when a man 

 does not know a great deal, to talk to bright men than dull 

 men, because they have some sympathy with you. In my 

 judgment, the solid, the permanent prosperity of this nation 

 depends upon a clear understanding of how to farm well ; 

 and the prosperity of your nation affects the well-being of 

 ours very seriously. We have so much in common, that 

 every step in advance which you make for bettering and 

 broadening the conditions favorable for prosperous life for 

 the common people we make shortly afterwards, and every 

 step that we take forward, we think you will take shortly, — 

 although you have not done so yet as speedily and largely 

 as might have been expected of you in some respects. 



* Stenographic report by Mr. C. E. Barnes. 



