DAIRY MEETING. Ill 



The one dairy-paper-taker whose herd proved unprofitable 

 lost $i.6i per cow; 34 of the 100 dairymen read general farm 

 papers but no specifically dairy papers; 15 made a profit averag- 

 ing $5.07; 19 a loss averaging $6.57; 24 read local papers, etc., 

 8 made a profit averaging $3.78, 16 a loss averaging $8.13; 24 

 do not read any farm or local papers; one, formerly a reader 

 made a profit of $9.50, 23 a loss of $9.96. Still further sum- 

 marizing : 



Sixteen dairy paper readers, average profit per cow, $8.12. 



Thirty-four general farm paper readers, average profit per 

 cow, $1.44. 



Twenty- four local paper readers, average loss per cow, $4.13. 



Twenty- four non-readers, average loss per cow, $9.14. 



And yet it used to be said that there was nothing in book- 

 farming and that one could not get anything worth while agri- 

 culturally from a printed page. And the pity of it is that those 

 who most need to profit by such a statement never attend meet- 

 ings like this, never read the report of the proceedings. They 

 know it all and always have. 



Now as to the validity of their results. Who is to say 

 whether a herd pays or does not pay? Is it not to a large 

 extent a matter of personal judgment? Is not the census-taker 

 a human being, and being human is not he fallible and likely to 

 make mistakes? Does not the factor known as the "personal 

 equation" enter into this work? Is there not chance for serious 

 error in judgment? To all of these, yes! But the man who 

 took this census and many others has been at this work for 

 many years. He has no bias, no reason for stating the facts 

 other than as he sees them ; and really the general outcome is 

 all that stress should be laid upon ; the details are minor mat- 

 ters. My personal judgment, based upon a study of the sundry 

 censuses taken by Mr. Lyon and by others elsewhere, leads me 

 on the whole to believe that, while he is perfectly honest and sin- 

 cere, thoroughly well informed as to and a veteran in this special 

 line of work, he is perhaps a shade inclined towards over state- 

 ments of roughage use. Yet this does not impair the essential 

 validity of the outcome, which is not concerned so much with 

 matters of detail and exact accuracy as with the broad aspects. 



