VERMONT DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 79 



apiece in the production of cream alone last year. We know of plenty 

 of farmers with three hundred acres of land and herds of 50 cows that 

 did not do as well. Mr. Griswold invests, say, $3,000 in land — for land is 

 not high about West Salem — and makes it earn more than some other 

 men with six times more land and twice as many cows. There must be 

 some reason for this. What is it? Mr. Griswold uses four times as 

 much dairy intelligence: he does four times as much dairy thinking; he 

 reads four times as much on dairy subjects. Consequently he can do 

 just as much business on six times less capital in land, and one-half as 

 many cows. Light is cheaper than Darkness. 



But that is not all. The expense in hired help; in farm machinery; in 

 fencing; in horses to do the work; in the fret and worry of body and 

 soul; in risk against losses; in all these things and more, is a great deal 

 less with the Griswold class of farmers. But Mr. Griswold made a 

 different man of himself to start with. He is a farmer who has made 

 himself bigger in comprehension than his farm. The other class of men 

 have been growing smaller in comprehension and administrative judg- 

 ment every year as they added to their acres. Who is responsible for 

 such widely differing results? Who made these two kinds of dairy 

 farmers as they are? Each man was his own schoolmaster. He is 

 bound to be. There is no help for it. Why don't the American 

 farmer see these things in their true light? Can we afford to neglect 

 our minds as we have done? 



ANOTHER FALLACY. 



We hear farmers constantly saying they cannot afford to hire 

 sufficient help to properly run the farm. Is this true or not? Is it wide 

 judgment, or is it narrow? Pardon me if I speak of my own experi- 

 ence in the past year. I own a farm of 193 acres. It will sell for $110 an 

 acre. I kept four men most of the time last year. My labor account 

 was $1,300. My cash receipts at the end of the year, March 1, are 

 $4,200. This does not include the value grown into the young stock. 

 I can see where I can make that farm earn over $5,000 a year. But I 

 must not refuse it labor. In my printing business I keep 50 people on 

 the pay-roll. I am looking all the time for a place where I can profit- 

 ably employ another person. That is the only way to make my business 

 earn more. So it is with the farm. Crowd it up to its best economic 

 work all you can. But you cannot make labor profitable with unwise 

 management. There is where the use of modern methods, modern in- 

 telligence, modern thought, comes in. You can't afford to be ancient, 

 if you expect to earn the modern dollar. There is such a lot of men 

 who seem to be as afraid of progressive ideas as they would be of 

 smallpox. There are two kinds of conservatism — that which is born 

 of fear and ignorance, and that which is born of knowledge and 

 courage. The first dreads the light, the second asks for more light, 

 better light. 



An old Irish friend of mine who was a brick mason was building 



