VERMONT DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 83 



average cost of keeping their cows was $42.66. Multiply this sum by 15 

 cents and you have as the loss per cow six dollars and forty cents. 

 Suppose a man had a dairy of 20 cows; then there would be a loss of 

 $128 annually. What can we say for a man who will not stop a hun- 

 dred and twenty-eight dollar leak with ten dollars' worth of good reading 

 information? 



Let me show you the figures for a moment on the fourteen who 

 did not read and what they lost by not reading, as compared with the 

 31 who did read: 



No. 3 with 37 cows dropped behind $236 80 



No. 4 with 20 cows dropped behind 128 00 



No. 5 with 22 cows dropped behind 140 80 



No. 6 with 13 cows dropped behind 83 20 



No. 8 with 22 cows dropped behind 140 80 



No. 12 with 24 cows dropped behind 153 60 



No. 17 with 20 cows dropped behind 128 00 



No. 22 with 22 cows dropped behind 140 80 



No. 29 with 24 cows dropped behind 153 60 



No. 30 with 10 cows dropped behind 64 00 



No. 32 with 7 cows dropped behind 44 80 



No. 33 with 12 cows dropped behind 76 80 



No. 36 with 14 cows dropped behind 89 60 



No. 38 with 22 cows dropped behind 140 80 



$1,721 60 



or a total loss with fourteen dairy farmers of $1,721.60. When the effect 

 on our minds by the right kind of reading matter can be had so cheaply, 

 think of the folly of these fourteen farmers losing seventeen hundred 

 and twenty-one dollars and sixty cents, when $10 apiece, or $140, would 

 have saved it. 



As I study these census returns and what they tell, I am amazed 

 beyond expression. It is not a pleasant prospect. Long before I 

 instituted this cow census work I was convinced that there was a 

 fearful leak somewhere with the average cow farmers. I wanted to dig 

 out the cold frozen facts and put them before the men who keep cows. 

 I have printed in Hoard's Dairyman in the last five years census in- 

 vestigations of 787 farmers, their farms and herds of cows, all covering 

 their work for one year at the creamery. Of these, 212 herds are in 

 Wisconsin; 100 in Iowa; 100 in Ohio; 325 in New York, and 50 in 

 Pennsylvania. These cover a wide range of territory. They tell the 

 same story of the gain in profit by trying to be intelligent and great 

 losses by refusing to make an effort to be intelligent. Which is 

 practical? 



I have as yet not attempted this investigation in Vermont, although 

 many of your leading men have importuned me to do so. They want 

 it as an eye-opener to the Vermont farmer. I think the result would 

 show about the same as in the other states. 



