326 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



What I want to speak of is what the successful dairyman must 

 know. He must know the principles of his business. He has the 

 opportunity to feed the consumer with an article of food that is 

 more used, almost, than anything else unless it is perhaps bread. It 

 is taken by the weak class, and for the most part raw; they get 

 It daily just as he milks it. It is a business that contributes as 

 much, if not more, than any other kind of farming to the sustenance 

 of the nation. In some sections where agriculture in other forms is 

 not growing, the milk production is growing constantly. It differs 

 from the production of wheat or corn or anything else, in that 

 the barn, as Dr. Detrich has already said, is the factory in which 

 each cow takes the place of a loom or machine, or whatever it may 

 be, to turn out the finished product. 



Now, the first thing the farmer has to do is to build this barn 

 and keep it in a sanitary condition. He must have in mind what 

 he is going to produce, and what is required of it, and he must 

 make his factory accordingly. He must know the cheapest and best 

 way to build that building, so that the running expenses will be 

 as little as possible. He must know that sunlight is the cheapest 

 and best antiseptic we have, and it is free for the asking. It is 

 good, and always ready, and is efficient, so build that building in 

 a position where you can get the sunshine to do its voluntary work. 

 I am not going into the details of building that barn. I am only 

 going to talk a very few minutes, and these details are so numerous 

 that I could talk about them for hours. 



He must know dirt when he sees it. I am making a safe asser- 

 tion when I say that there are more than half the dairymen who 

 don't know dirt when they see it. Dirt is matter out of place. 

 An innocent little clover leaf out of place becomes a detriment. 

 Dirt gets into the milk and can never be taken out entirely. An 

 atom of dust may be taken out, but you can't get the germs out. I 

 won't go into the details of eradicating the germs, because that was 

 so exhaustively discussed yesterday, but remember that dirt can- 

 not be strained out of the milk; the coarse particles may be taken 

 out, but the dirt that is injurious to health cannot be taken out. 



Now, how to get this out is the next question, and how are these 

 machines (cows) to be secured, is another question that interests 

 us. Whether they are to be produced on the farm, or whether they 

 are to be bought is a matter that each individual must decide for 

 himself. Much depends on your farm. If there is a large amount 

 of meadow land it is possible to produce them to better advantage 

 than to buy them, perhaps. I made a calculation a few weeks ago, 

 charging for the calf at birth f.S.OO, and figuring the cost of every- 

 thing that would go towards raising that calf at a good high price, 

 and it amounted to .f39.45, but I included things that would not 

 have to be bought, so |35 is a good, high price. Suppose 2.o per 

 cent, of them go wrong and are not worth anything, the ones that 

 are, are worth fifty dollars, and the ones that are not are worth 

 perhaps five hundred pounds of beef at the butcher's, at six or seven 

 cents a pound, say |30. Say that only half of them turn out to 

 be good cows, you are ahead of the game. 



To get the kind of cow you want is tl),e question, and she is not 

 usually sold, — a cow that is just exactly what you want, and is 



