No. b. 



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



i8d 



What docs it cost to keep a coiv a year?: Those 26 New Hamp- 

 shire farmers found v>hen keeping a record it cost them as follows: 



Cost of feed, 



Lfthor 



Delivery milk, 



Housing cows, 



Depreciation on cow, 



Bedding, 



Bull 



Taxes and interest, 



Ice. coal and wood 



Veterinary service and medicine, 



Tools, utensils, talt. etc 



Cow testing association expenses per cow per .rear, 



Credit 



Manure, 



Cnlf 



Net cost 



$73 02 

 32 33 



7 18 

 9 05 



8 S3 

 4 00 



3 7S 



4 ;s 

 2 17 



87 



53 



1 40 



$15 00 

 3 00 



$147 73 

 IS DO 



$129 73 



I said hardly half the cows kept by the farmers for dairy purposes 

 do pay for their keep. The above test of superior cows shows hardly 

 40 per cent, of the cows paid for their keep or made a profit. How 

 can we dairymen solve this all important business problem on our 

 farm? Prof. Stevens will tell you later in the session. 



The careful experiments made at the Maryland and Pennsylvania 

 experiment stations and some private experience points to a simpli- 

 fied sheltering of our cows. The open air cow stable may in a great 

 measure solve the problem of that terrible scourge of the dairyman 

 and breeder, viz: tuberculosis. Vigor and vitality induced by plenty 

 of pure bracing air may also help us to ward off some of the other 

 diseases that so often bring great loss to the dairyman. The sim- 

 plified method of mixing and feeding a balanced ration, as outlined 

 by Dr. Armsby and Prof. Van Norman of State College, enables us 

 to feed a balanced ration almost as easily as any other. If the 

 open air stable works out as favorably as all available data indicates 

 we can greatly reduce overhead expenses which kept increasing 

 rapidly as the years went by and the stable equipment manufacturers 

 increased and multiplied. 



The business dairyman has had two distinctive business proposi- 

 tions in view: First, to reduce the cost of production; and, second, 

 to increase the selling price to a just and honest basis. Keeping a 

 record and weeding out all unprofitable cows, reducing the labor 

 and equipment cost, feeding a more efficient ration will help to solve 

 the first proposition. The second is more difficult and I am not sure 

 that we know just how to solve it. Every manufacturer in whatever 

 line he may work invariably makes the price for the product he pro- 

 duces or quit business, except the manufacture of dairy products. 

 Here the middleman or handler makes the price to the manufacturer 

 as well as to the consumer. The dairyman is patient and long suf- 

 fering beyond all the rest of humanity, but patience in this matter has 

 lone: ceased to be a virture. 



The time is here when the producer of dairy products must look 

 after the final marketing of his products. Every other manufacturer 

 does this because it is one of the essential elements of successful 

 business. The fact is the farmers generally have not given the mar- 

 keting of tlieir dairy products a minute's thought. I lately visited 

 a section with a number of small towns. The farmers shipped all 



