972 Xew Yokk State Dairymen's Association 



a toll for. If vuu raise a large area of peas and oats you can 

 use that straw for Ixddiui;'. It is, however, almost too valuable 

 for bodiliiig because pea and oat straw, if the peas are liarvested 

 just when they should be aiul properly taken care of, is valuable 

 forage for the young growing stock especially. Pea and oat straw 

 makes a valuable forage and you cannot afford, as a business man, 

 to use it simply for bedding. It ought first to be run through the 

 manger. The young stock ought to have a chance to eat prac- 

 tically all of this as it is rich in protein. We never have been 

 able to raise enough oats and peas to provide sufficient straw for 

 bedding, and we had to put into the rotation a crop of wheat. 



The greatest factor upon the dairy farm other than the man 

 himself is the dairy cow\ We all realize that the dairy cow is the 

 dairy farmer's machine through which he markets his products, 

 and the better that machine is, the more economical it is, the 

 greater opportunity there is for him to make a profit. We realize 

 that there are a great many dairy cows that have not the capacity 

 to make a profit in manufacturing crops into finished products. 

 We have found out by actual experience that some cows have more 

 capacity to consume feed and turn it into marketable products at 

 a profit than others. That is a question for the business farmer to 

 consider, for him to figure out. He must learn that there is a great 

 difi'erence in these machines and it is up to him as a business man 

 to see that the poor ones are weeded out and only the good ones 

 retained. We hear a great many people, usually editors of agri- 

 cultural or dairy papers, claim that the farmer does not make 

 any money in dairying. They figure it out that a great many 

 farmers are losing money in dairying, that they do not get suf- 

 ficient prices for their products, that the feed of their dairy 

 herd costs them so much and the labor so much that there is no 

 profit in it. Now I do not believe the dairy farmers get any 

 better prices or as good prices as they ought to. I do not be- 

 lieve thev get their share of the consumer's dollar. I believe that 

 is something for the dairy farmers in a cooperative way to investi- 

 gate carefully. But on the other hand I do not Ixdieve that dairy 

 farming over this great country is a losing business. I do not be- 

 lieve that so many farmers, scattered all over this country, would 

 stick to it if they did not make something out of it. I do not care 



