No. 5. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 191 



for several years about the fact that it does not pay to farm. Why 

 is it? Is it the fault of the farm, or of the man who does the farm- 

 ing? I think the trouble is not with the farm, but with the man. We 

 will have to get over the idea that any one can go out and farm. It 

 requires not only industry and hard work, but it requires brains. 

 It requires a great deal of planning and business ability to carry on 

 the business of farming. 



The first thing a man has to have to start the dairy business, is 

 cows. You say you can buy cows, lots of them, for forty or fifty dol- 

 lars. That is all right to start your herd, but there are localities 

 where men have made money by buying fresh cows, milking them for 

 a certain period, and then selling them, but I believe in the long 

 run this system will be unpi-ofitable. Then comes the question of 

 breed. First of all, select a breed that is adapted to the market 

 which you supply. For a milk market, the Holstein or Ayrshire, for 

 the butter or cream market, the Jersey or Guernsey. If a breed is 

 established in the locality, think seriously before adapting any other. 

 The average man starts in without any definite idea of this, simply 

 thinking he must get enough cows to start in the dairy business. The 

 result is, as Mr. Martin has just told you, one-third of the cows in 

 Pennsylvania are kept at a loss. In any mercantile business, would 

 you run for five years at a loss? No; you would begin to take stock, 

 and see where your loss was; so it is with dairying, you must take 

 stock, and get rid of the unprofitable cows. 



Our dairy cows have not increased in proportion to the population. 

 Last year something like eleven million dollars were spent in this 

 State for dairy products, and yet the dairy cow has just about held 

 her own. When meat goes so high that the poorer class never use 

 it — I hope that time will never come — there will still be a market 

 for milk, because there is no better or cheaper way to secure the 

 nutrient protein than through milk and cheese. Therefore there is 

 bound to be an increased demand for milk and its products. 



Now in any system of dairying, we must first establish a standard 

 and then try to live up to it. First, we must have a good dairy 

 cow. How are we going to get it? It is very simple; so simple 

 that even a child can do it. That is to keep an accurate record of 

 what each cow produces. You can get one of these little balance 

 scales and hang the bucket on it; it will take about ten minutes if 

 you milk twenty cows. It certainly is worth that small amount of 

 time to discover whether your cows are boarding or not. You say, 

 "I have a dandy good cow; she gives a bucket and a half full of milk 

 every day." Yes, but how long does she continue to do this? For 

 six months, and then stops? Each cow .should be charged a certain 

 amount for her feed, and that deducted before she is called a profit- 

 able cow. Thus we can determine the profit of each cow in the herd. 



Next comes the question of handling the cow. At the Cornell Ex- 

 periment Station they have taken cows, and by careful handling of 

 them, have increased their butterfat yield from ten to twenty pounds 

 per year, making cows that did not pay for their feed come into the 

 class where they just about paid for themselves, and increasing those 

 that just about paid for themselves into cows that paid a profit. This 

 is just an example of what good management is able to do and T 

 believe that these results can be secured by most farmers, 



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