DAIRY MEETING. 



^35 



carefully to get the best. They see the importance of that, but 

 when it comes to that live machine that is to work over the raw- 

 material of the farm into a finished product in a way to make the 

 business a financial success, they appear not to use the same 

 business acumen. I can explain this in no other way unless it 

 be that the inherited idea that has come down to them through 

 generations of cow keepers that one cow is about as good as 

 another and that the feed is the principal thing, still maintains 

 with them. 



Often when you ask a farmer about his dairy, he will tell you 

 he guesses so and so. He does not "guess" with his crops, he 

 knows when you come to that, but does not appreciate the dififer- 

 ence in the ability of those cow machines to work over raw ma- 

 terial into milk. 



Now I am going to give you some figures to illustrate these 

 points, which are not guesswork. First I will show you a chart 

 that was worked out for our own dairy association two years 

 ago. It brings out so clearly the point I am discussing that I 

 think you will excuse me, although this chart has been used 

 before, but not published. These figures were obtained from a 

 creamery in one of the most densely populated cow sections of 

 the state, a creamery running all the year. 



This does not show all the patrons of that creamery but it 

 gives enough to illustrate the difference in the business manage- 

 ment of those farmers. In the first case the farmer sold the 

 crops grown on his farm to his cows at a good margin of profit 



