No. 5. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 187 



Who should do dairying?: Or we might ask who should stay out 

 of the dairy business? If your farm, your land or your market is 

 not adapted to dairying or if you have a local market for some article 

 that gives you more profit better not devote the land to dairying. If 

 you hate the cow and the business, if j^ou say, "I do not want to be 

 tied to the cow," or if you had rather be "tied" to a cur dog, or the 

 corner grocery, or the old pipe and the grog shop, why that is none 

 of my business, but stay out of the dairy business because it will be 

 a miserable failure. If on the other hand it is your delight to work 

 with the dairy cows, study their ways and wants and supply them 

 intelligently you are the man for the dairy. If the cows have your 

 first attention in the morning and the last in the evening, if for the 

 betterment of that herd you can forego the yarn swapping grocery, 

 or the nickelodiau and rise with the robin in the mom, be as indus- 

 trious as the ant and happy as the lark all day long you are cut 

 out for a successful dairyman. Get into the game, there is a for- 

 tune awaiting you. 



What do you need to start dairying? The idea seems to have gone 

 forth of late years that the main thing the dairyman needs is barns, 

 stables and equipment galore. The sanitary stable with all its ven- 

 tilating contraptions, the wood-lined iron nickle plated swinging 

 stanchion, the water outfit, the overhead carrier, switches, cars, roll- 

 ing stock, etc., until bushels of dollars have been invested. Then we 

 must study scientifically balanced rations from books, bulletins and 

 tables until our head aches. All these are matters of importance 

 but not of the first importance by any means. Very often I am 

 appealed to to help plan an equipment and devise a balanced ration 

 and when I inquire about the cows I learn that they are quite a 

 secondary matter. They are good, bad and indifferent but mostly 

 indifferent. The owner fondly hopes that if the equipment is up to 

 date and the ration scientifically balanced the cows must make a 

 profit or bust. This of course seems ridiculous but it is true very 

 often. Many a man spents so much money on equipment that he 

 feels unable to make the required investment to secure the best 

 dairy stock. This is a serious mistake. It is hitching the cart be- 

 fore the horse. 



We must have good dairy cows: Statistical authorities, who are 

 good guessers, I presume tell us a third of the cows we keep for 

 dairy purposes are unprofitable; but the cow testing association work 

 proves that about the half of the cows we have can not pay for their 

 keep. This is a serious condition and it is not a theory, depend on 

 it. Not more than one farmer in fifty knows what his cows are doing 

 in the way of production. A farmer keeps 20 cows, ten make him a 

 profit while the other ten make him nothing and loose him money. 

 This seems like a most ridiculous piece of business, but the great 

 majority of folks are pursuing this course in all seriousness and 

 without the least attempt to improve conditions. They tell me they 

 can tell a good cow by looking at her. Men who are otherwise sane 

 actually tell me this. When a superstition becomes deep rooted it 

 cannot be thrown off but must be outgrown. This is surely true of 

 our foolish notion that we can tell a profitable cow from an un- 

 profitable cow by looking at her. A campaign of genuine and funda- 



