642 ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



SOME THINGS IN DAIRY FARMING. 



(An address prepared for the Dairymen's Convention at Harris- 

 burg, Pa., January 24, 1907, bv Hon. V. D. Hoard, Fort Atkinson, 

 Wis.) 



What does it mean to be a dairy farmer of today? This is a 

 very important question to everyone dovv'n the long line of men who 

 make up this great dairy iuilustry. There is no man in that line 

 who is as important to the industry, as the farmer back on the farm. 

 On him must rest nearly every important consideration; the quantity 

 of the product, the quality of it, for here he governs completely; 

 the stability of it for if he finds it unprofitable the whole line 

 wavers and is thrown into confusion. It is his honor, conscience, 

 intelligence and watchful care that determines the quality of all 

 the products of the cow. On quality depends consumption, and on 

 comsumption depends price and profit. All this depends on the man 

 behind the cow. Then, besides, the character of the cow herself 

 depends on his intelligence, discernment and enterprise. 



The dairy farmer is the man at the switch sending the train along 

 the right track or stalling it on a siding. 



We have only to think this business of dairying out to its roots 

 and branches to see that all the forces of education, law and public 

 opinion should be enlisted to make the dairy farmer understand his 

 own importance to the whole, and fully and thoroughly understand 

 what it means to be a dairy farmer of today. 



In thousands of instances the love of money, larger profit, better 

 reward, is not enough to make thinkers of unthinking men, who 

 keep cows and unprofitably fill the place of a profitable dairy farmer. 

 And so there must be constant agitation of the subject, constant 

 stirring of thought, constant holding of conventions and institutes; 

 constant reading and study, that if possible, these men who keep 

 cows and do not realize what dairying means, may be reached and 

 lifted up until they can see the question in its true light. 



Think of the great width of this question. Think of the vast 

 army of men it supports from the farm to the creamery and cheese 

 factory; to the thousands of dealers and commission merchants; to 

 the manufacturers of machinery and dairy supplies; to the great 

 transportation interests on both sea and land that look to it for 

 sustenance. Then think of the millions of consumers who wait upon 

 the cow and all these intermediaries for their daily food. The cow 

 makes it right, pure and good. If there is anything wrong with it, 

 it comes from the ignorance, indifference and wilful neglect of the 

 men who stand between the cow and the consumer. Chief among 

 these is the farmer. He must be held to the largest responsibility 

 for he has the most to do with the milk at the time of its greatest 

 liability to bad impressions. At every stage beyond him modern 

 science has done more to perfect the way 'than it has at the farm, 

 and this for the reason that farmers, as a class, have not believed 

 in science. They have not taken an educated mental interest in their 



