THE DAIRY COW. 



By W. F. McSparran. 



I think I may write it down as a demonstrated truth that 

 prosperity follows the dairy cow. In my rather extensive lec- 

 ture work among farmers in various states of the Union and 

 under varied conditions of methods of farming, climate and 

 general farm environment, I should be qualified to speak intelli- 

 gently upon the question of profitable farming, and I may re- 

 peat that good cows and well-doing are closely related. 



Indeed I may go a step farther and say that speaking for 

 farming in general, those farmers who are giving the most 

 careful and intelligent attention to the dairy business are our 

 most prosperous class of farmers. Their business is the most 

 clearly defined, their methods the best systemized, their occupa- 

 tions the most uninterrupted and continuous, thus enabling 

 them to use the full time of the most dependable labor to be 

 secured ; their income is the most steady and their profits the 

 most sure. 



I do not wish to be understood as having any thought of ex- 

 ploiting the dairy business as a bonanza business or as a get- 

 rich-quick scheme. There are no bonanzas in legitimate farm- 

 ing. Success comes only by making good uses of the "here 

 a little and there a little," by intelligence, industry, frugality, 

 and the exercise and application of conser^'ative business meth- 

 ods and principles. 



As I have seen it and studied it, this is true of all lines of 

 farming and dairy farming is no exception. 



I do not desire to represent dairying as the only line of farm 

 industry that is and can be made profitable, for there are many 

 sections in which special crops are highly remunerative, as for 

 instance, the numerous apple sections of the country, the early 

 potatoes and vegetables of eastern Virginia, of New Jersey and 



