HANDLING THE DAIRY FOR PROFIT. 7I 



done by a young man in our town with a herd of 13 cows, none 

 of which are thoroughbreds, and merely an ordinary herd. This 

 herd averaged him $59.60 per cow, gross, and the cost of grain 

 was $17 per cow, leaving a balance of $42.60 for hay, pasturing 

 and care. The work was done with the aid of one hired man, 

 which would have been necessary to carry on the farm of 150 

 acres. The milking is done at five o'clock in the morning and 

 5 o'clock in the evening, making a day of twelve hours, with an 

 hour for noon. 



Allowing each cow to have consumed two tons of hay at $8.00, 

 or a total of $16.00 for two tons, we have $26.60 remaining, in 

 addition to the $14 worth of fertilizer saved from the hay, also 

 quite a portion of the $17.00 paid for grain, which will offset the 

 pasturing ; so we can safely reckon a profit of $40 a cow or a 

 total of $520 for the herd of 13. 



My point is this : We can raise our potatoes and in connection 

 with it conduct a dairy, work no harder than at present, market 

 the hay on our farms, thereby saving rather than buying fertili- 

 zer and saving the cost of pressing and marketing the hay, and 

 come out with more money at the end of the year. It is neces- 

 sary in order to do anything at a profit to reduce the cost of 

 production to the lowest possible figure, and in order to do that 

 we must do the most work with the least labor. And here 

 comes in the question of machinery. 



I am willing to admit that you are doing successful farming 

 without dairying, but I do maintain that you can do successful 

 dairying in connection with your present work. I shall try to 

 show how dairymg can be done at a profit. It is, of course, nec- 

 essary that careful selection should be made of the cows kept. I 

 am certain that successful work mav be done wnth anv of the rec- 

 ognized dairy breeds, but I believe that a careful selection must 

 be made of the individual animals of whatever breed, and that 

 because a cow is a thoroughbred is not sufficient evidence that 

 she has the qualities which we need for successful dairy work. 



I do not wish to be understood as being opposed to the breed- 

 ing of full-bloods, for that is a step in the right direction, and 

 must be followed ; but when the animal has developed and we 

 can judge of her qualities, then we should keep or discard her as 

 the results will warrant. And we must bear in mind that care- 

 ful breeding is one of the secrets of success, for if we are able 



