No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 563 



where the average is over G,000 pounds per cow per year the farmers 

 are making a reasonable protit and are reasonably satisfied and 

 contented and going on with the production of milk; that on the 

 farms where the average is less than that there is not only discour- 

 agement and dissatisfaction but they are actually going out of the 

 milk production business so fast that the Borden people are troubled 

 to know where to get the amount of milk needed to furnish their 

 customers in New York City. They can sell more milk in New York 

 than they can get ; therefore their j)robIem in New York and eastern 

 territory is to get milk enough to meet their trade and they are 

 limited because lots of the producers are going out of the business 

 because they are not making a profit and the reason is that they 

 are keeping poor cows. And so I say to the Pennsylvania farmers 

 that I believe that the solution of this proposition is in first-hand 

 knowledge of what we are doing, because there are cows that will 

 make a good x>rofit at present prices, and I would not be a bit sur- 

 prised if you will find that often there is actually more profit on the 

 best 30 cows in a herd of 50 than there is on the whole herd. There 

 are lots of men who will find they have been supplying the trade 

 for glory instead of profit, and that while not selling as much milk 

 from 30 cows as they did when they had 50 cows they would be much 

 better ofi" with the best 30. Get the facts. Somebody has got to 

 supply the trade with milk from somewhere. What we are after is 

 profit. That is what we have to have. There is many a fellow when 

 urged to have his cows tested will say: Then I will have to sell my 

 poor cows, and not have enough milk to supply my trade. That is 

 the argument over and over. It may be he is under obligations to 

 furnish a definite number of gallons of milk. I would cut out that 

 obligation quick if I could not meet it and make profit, better make 

 less milk and keep fewer cows and have a profit left. The only way 

 is to get the figures of how much the cows are producing and what 

 we are paying for the feed and labor. This feed proposition — the 

 first thing you have to do is to keep the cow alive and it takes ap- 

 proximately the same amount to keep each cow going. After that 

 all the good feed you can get a cow to eat up to the point of getting 

 fat goes into milk production and if you have got a cow that eats 

 three times as much over maintenance as another cow she will make 

 three times as much milk, but if the extra feed goes into body fat it 

 does not count in the milk pail. It is the quantity of silage raised 

 over and above the cost of labor on it that makes the silage cheap 

 food. It takes just as long to feed a poor cow as a good one; as 

 long to haul the manure out from a poor as a good cow. We have 

 got to get a surplus over and above cost and the place to commence 

 to figure these matters is at home. A great many farmers in Penn- 

 sylvania do not take time to consider. What we need on many 

 farms is to get one more farm hand even at the prices you have to 

 pay today and then let the owner spend five hours a day using his 

 wits and let the farm hand to do the work he would-do with his 

 hands. That farm hand may cost 50 cents or maybe a little more, 

 but the man who is feeding thirty or forty cows will have time to 

 use his wits and an hour spent in watching the men plowing or 

 feeding or in studying the cows, or how to save time for the other 



