154 Thirty-Sixth Annual Report of the 



THE cow AND WHAT SHE HAS DONE FOR MAN. 



PRO]?. G. I.. MCKAY, IOWA STAT^ COLLEGE, AMES, IOWA. 



Dairying is very much like water ; it becomes purer and bet- 

 ter from agitation but if permitted to stand still soon becomes 

 stagnant. Looking backward over the advancement that has 

 been made in dairying during the last 25 or 30 years and com- 

 paring it with the progress that has been made along other lines 

 of agricultural pursuits, we must confess that we have not ad- 

 vanced as fast as we should, especially as viewed from the pro- 

 ducer's standpoint. Thirty years ago it took 211 hours of labor 

 to produce 100 bushels of barley. Today it takes about nine 

 hours. It took 228 hours of labor to produce 50 bushels of 

 shelled corn, and today it takes about a third of that time. To 

 produce 100 bushels of oats takes about one-tenth the labor that 

 it took 30 years ago. It takes about one-twentieth of the time 

 to produce a bushel of wheat that it did 30 years ago. All this 

 is due to the use of modern machinery and the scientific methods 

 of farming. 



There is no line of agricultural work that pays better than 

 dairying if done in an intelligent manner. Dairying takes prac- 

 tically no fertility from the soil. A ton of wheat removes about 

 $7 worth of plant food, while a ton of butter removes only fifty 

 cents worth of these ingredients. At the same time a ton of 

 wheat brings a market price of $20 or $22, while a ton of butter 

 sells for $400. In other words, the man who is running a dairy is 

 practically selling sunshine, air and rain, and very little of the 

 latter, while the grain farmer is disposing of the elements of 

 fertility that sooner or later must be returned to the soil, cither 

 in the form of barn yard manure or commercial fertilizers. 



The lack of imagination or of original ideas is a great draw- 

 back to men in all lines of business. Often you find in men an 

 absolute incapacity to realize an unfamiliar situation, to grasp 

 conditions which are not immediately visible, to recognize facts 

 which to others are a plain and potent element in their life. This 



*Receivcd from Prof. McKay for printing. 



