DAIRY MEETING. 63 



made a profit of $39.40 a year; the 20 which were second best 

 made a profit of $21.96; the 20 third best, a profit of $14.62^ 

 the 20 fourth best, $5.67, and the 23 poorest made a loss of 

 $13.07 each. The 20 best cows made a profit of $788, and the 

 83 remaining cows made a profit of $400, just about half. 



Now it is the poor cows which are eating up the profits of 

 the good ones. If you are to increase the profits of your herds, 

 or decrease the cost of production, you must eliminate the cows 

 which individually run you into debt. 



In the second place, we must feed our cows more intelligently. 

 That is a pretty hard proposition to put up to a dairyman at the 

 present time. How are you going to feed so as to produce 

 products more economically? Feeds are high in price, we say 

 they are almost out of sight. The market price of our products 

 is not in proportion, especially just at present, because on 

 account of the financial depression the working classes are 

 apparently not able to consume as much or to pay as much as 

 they might have done if it had not been for the change in the 

 financial situation. And so I say that under present conditions 

 it is a pretty hard problem to tell you how to produce a pound 

 of butter fat at less cost than you did last year. 



A great deal of thought and study and investigation have been 

 put upon the subject of feeding. The experiment stations have 

 done a great deal of work in analyzing all of our cattle foods; 

 they have made hundreds of analyses. They have carried on 

 digestion experiments and countless feeding experiments. We 

 have the experience and the practice of successful dairymen all 

 over this country to draw from, but if I were to boil down, as 

 it were, the present knowledge on the subject of economical 

 feeding, I should express it in the form of maxims, of which 

 there are practically five. 



First, the more food you can get a cow to eat the greater the 

 milk flow. I am speaking in general terms. A cow will not 

 usually consume more food than she can digest properly. If 

 we accept that principle and put it in practice, it simply means 

 that we must make the ration of the cow as palatable as possible. 

 In the first place, we must give her a variety, because a variety 

 of foods is always more appetizing than a few foods. Silage 

 or roots seem to be more appetizing and the cow will eat more 



