624 ANNUAL. REPOllT <)F THE Off. Doc. 



me. It is bard to make dairy farmers see that they want good 

 well-bred stock themselves, next, that there are thousands of other 

 farmers that want it more than they do and are willing to pay for 

 it. Consider, that there is no one form of our live stock today that 

 is so scarce as good cows; that in the natural evolution of public 

 conviction, cows will be scarcer owing to weeding out of unfit 

 cows and consequent reduction of the size of the herds; that the 

 consumption of milk as a food is increasing to an enormous extent 

 and as a consequence is stiffening the prices of butter and cheese. 

 In most of the butter and cheese producing districts there is a 

 noticeable lessening of production owing to the drainage of cows 

 away to other sections for city milk production. 



Consider, that in all these city milk producing districts there 

 are but very few calves raised, while the cows are kept rarely more 

 than three years. 



Consider, that only one-half of all the calves are heifers and of 

 these but a small percentage reach cowhood, that consequently 

 the increase of cows in so great a dairy state as Wisconsin has 

 been only 5^ per cent yearly from 1850 to 1900. Consider, that every 

 child born is a consumer of milk but not always of meat. 



Consider that the enormous increase in the population of this 

 country is vastly ahead of the increase in the cow population. Con- 

 sider, all these things as having a bearing on the future of the 

 dairy industry and then tell me if you do not thinlc there is a good 

 prospect ahead for the farmer who will go into the business of 

 producing and rearing first class dairy cows, bred from sires of 

 undoubted dairy parentage. 



I have a neighbor, a bright keen German dairy farmer. He buys, 

 every four or five years, the best registered Guernsey bull calf he 

 can find to replace his old bull in a year or so. He pays handsome 

 prices for his bulls and he will not buy a cheap animal. Mind you 

 his herd is nearly all grade cows. He is a fine calf raiser and sells 

 annually from 8 to 10 young heifers and yearlings for from |25 to 

 |40 each, and he has quick sale for all he can produce. He will 

 tell you every time that the great factor of success with him is the 

 high quality of the bull he keeps. Don't you think his advanced 

 ideas pay him better than as though they were of the ordinary 

 unthrifty, unprogressive order? He lives on a rented form of 171 

 acres and he gives cash receipts of the farm in butter, cream, hogs, 

 poultry, young cattle, etc., to the amount of |4,000 annually and he 

 has half of it. Don't you think it pays him to practice advanced 

 ideas in farming? 



The Matter of Breed. 



It is a common thing to hear men say: "Pay no attention to the 

 matter of breed in cows. What you want is a cow that will do 

 business at the pail." That sort of talk is very superficial. The 

 question of breed is a very important one. The farmers of Minn- 

 esota followed Prof. Shaw for years and as he told them, selected 

 beef bred bulls to breed "dual purpose" cows for dairy work. 



They found at last, to their sorrow, that they were getting the 

 loosing end of the bargain. Their cows were failures as dairy ani- 

 mals. Hoard's Dairyman warned them against the practice and 

 anybody who had an understanding of the effects of breed on feed, 



