No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 643 



business. The domain of science is in the mind and farmers have 

 had but little mind for it. Hence, they do not see how it bears 

 upon their work. The greatest problem in agriculture today is to 

 get the farmer to see where science touches him and his life work 

 and so take advantage of what she has to give. . 



Right here lies the larger meaning of dairy farming. I have 

 spoken thus in a general sense so we may take a larger view for a 

 moment of the great field dairying occupies and the necessity that 

 exists that the dairy farmer should comprehend well his own re- 

 lation to it. I have selected a few special lines to talk upon that 

 bear most sharply upon the farmer. First of these is the breeding 

 of the right kind of a cow for his work. Do you know that when 

 we come to study into this question, it is absolutely apijalling to 

 see what enormous losses the farmers of the country sustain because 

 they will persist in breeding and keeping coavs unlit for dairy work. 



Hoard's Dairyman has spent ^8,000 in taking cow censuses in 

 ten states, from Iowa and Minnesota all the way to New England. 

 In several of these states such as Wisconsin, Ohio and New York, 

 several censuses have been taken. In the main they were of 100 

 herds each. As accurate study as possible Avas made of each cow, 

 in each herd, and a statement made of what she earned at the 

 creamer}' and what she cost in feed. 



From this mass of testimony the best that has ever been at- 

 tempted, we find that fully one-third of the cows are kept at actual 

 loss. 



Think what a drain upon the farmer and the country this is. 

 Is it not time that the men who keep the cows tried to obtain a 

 better understanding of what it means to be a dairy farmer? 



THE UPWARD STEP. 



We are all affected by our environment. How universally true 

 is the old saying ''A man is known by the company he keeps." 

 There is no getting away from the influence of association. Every 

 farmer is subject to it. The books and papers he reads are his 

 associates, just as much as the men he meets. One of the greatest 

 dairymen Wisconsin ever produced was Hiram Smith, of Sheboygan 

 county, v.ho died in 18S0 and for whom one of the important build- 

 ings on the University Campus, the Hiram Smith Hall, was named. 

 One of his favorite sayings was "A registered sire is a great edu- 

 cator. It is an upward step." He had seen farmers about him in 

 all stages of dcA'clopment and with no development and he declared 

 that there was no hope of a man's upward progress as a farmer 

 jusit as long as he kept a grade or scrub sire. Here again do we 

 see the effect of the law of association. We have noted it ourself 

 in hundreds of instances. All about us in Jefferson countv, Wis- 

 consin, now noted for its production of dairy cattle, are farmers who 

 haA^e made handsome progress in knowledge and wealth. Their pro- 

 gress dates from the very hour that they commenced keeping a 

 pure-bred sire. A large proportion of them are Germans, Avho have 

 been obliged to learn to read English in a slow and difficult manner. 

 They saAV the improvement that came in their neighbor's cattle from 

 such a sire. That set them to tliinking. Buyers came and paid 

 more for the heifers and cows from such sires. The buvers were a 



