The Bulletin. 91 



cows, wheu he migbt as well drive up twenty. Another thing is, a man with 

 only six cows does not have enough money invested in the business so that 

 he will care for it as it should be cared for. The consequence is that the cows 

 do not produce so much as they could if they were well cared for. My argu- 

 ment is that if he has twenty cows he will give them better care, and. that he 

 will realize more profit per cow. 



I have heard the argument that if everybody went into dairying it would 

 be overdone. My answer to that is that everybody is not going into dairying, 

 because there are just enough people who are afraid of the work in dairying 

 to keep the business from being overcrowded. At ^least, I have been talking 

 dairying everywhere for the last ten years, and other men have been doing the 

 same, and I do not see any indication yet of the business being overdone. 



Fifteen years ago 12 cents were paid for creamery butter. Last winter the 

 price was as high as 40 cents, and even 4.5 cents in the large cities. The 

 human population is increasing every year. The increase in the cow popula- 

 tion has been just about as rapid as the increase in the human population, 

 and no more so. On the other hand, new markets for milk are found every 

 year. Think of the condensed milk industry, which was practically unknown 

 fifteen or twenty years ago. Think of the increase in the ice-cream business, 

 the new uses found for milk powder, such as the manufacture of billiard 

 balls, buttons, etc., the increased use of buttermilk, and the increased use of 

 whole milk in cities, as well as the increase in the consumption of cheese. 

 This increased consumption, and the new uses for milk, have forced prices up, 

 and I do not see any indication yet that dairying will be overdone for the next 

 twenty or thirty years. We do not now produce enough butter for our own 

 consumption. We have not been exporting butter for ten or twelve years ; and 

 we are forced to-day to use oleomargarine and process butter because we 

 cannot get enough good dairy and creamery butter for the table. 



So much for the advantages of the dairy business. It may truly be regarded 

 as a business. It seems to me just as much a business to produce milk as it 

 is to manufacture shoes or agricultural implements or other things of that 

 sort; and if the business is to be successful we must put business principles 

 back of it. 



The most important factor in any business, and also in the business of 

 dairying, is the man. Unless he is the kind of a man who will put his busi- 

 ness on a systematic business basis, the business will not reach the highest 

 success. There is a large amount of physical labor required in farming, and 

 we get into the habit of thinking that the physical labor is what will bring 

 the returns. 



I do not wish to be understood as saying that I believe the farmer ought 

 to work less, for there is plenty of work to do on a farm. But I believe it 

 would pay any farmer to devote more time to the actual study of his business. 

 Many work so hard physically that they are incapacitated for mental work. 

 They work hard in the field all day. and in the evening they are tired and 

 unable to study and work out the problems of the farm. Old Dr. Beal, of the 

 .Michigan Agricultural College, made the statement one day in the classroom 

 that he believed it would pay any farmer well to devote one day each week 

 to the study and planning of his business. When I first heard that statement 

 I thought it was very extravagant; but the more I thought of it, the more I 

 was convinced of it— that it would actually pay the farmer in dollars and 

 cents to do this. 



I made the statement once at a farmers' institute, and after the formal 

 address there was a question box, and this question was found among the 

 others : "If a farmer should have one day's vacation each week, how many 

 davs vacation should the farmer's wife have?" But Dr. Beal did not say it 

 was to be a vacation; and I believe you will agree with me that if the farmer 

 devotes that one dav a week to the study of every problem in connection with 

 his business, he will be more tired when evening comes than he would be if 

 he had followed the plow all day. 



There are many other factors which go to build up a successful dairy busi- 

 ness. There are'the selection of the cows; the breeding, care, and feeding; 

 the marketing of the product, and the production of crops, but all these are 

 subordinate in importance to that prime factor, the MAN. 



