64* ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



Now, here is a practical example drawn from my own experience: 

 In February, 19U2, the Guernsey bull, Starlight's Excelsior 7992, was 

 born. He was bred by the late N. P. Fairbanks, of Lake Geneva, 

 Wis. I bought him when little more than a calf, paying a price up 

 in the hundreds for him. I was attracted to him by the rich charac- 

 ter of his pedigree, the excellent record of the cows back of him and 

 his strong prepotent appearance. He will be five years old Febru- 

 ary next, and is in his prime. From that bull I have sold |810 

 worth of grade Guernsey heifer calves, |1,500 worth registered 

 heifer calves, |2,000 worth of registered bull calves, making a total 

 of cash sales of calves, from him, of $4,310. I have on hand six of 

 his heifers in milk two years old that 1 can sell any day for |1,500, 

 and 18 of his calves with nine more to come that are worth at a low 

 estimate $2,500. This makes the total value of his stock up to date, 

 $8,310. Cut it iu two, giving one-half of the value to the cows and 

 then the bull stands credited with $4,153. Could I afford to pay a 

 good price for him? 



When I was a boy I read in an old almanac this verse: 



"A fiddler had a cow and he had nothing for 



to feed her. 

 So he took his fiddle and played the tune 



'Consider, cow! consider.'" 



Allow me for a few minutes to sing the changes on the word ''consi- 

 der." Please consider that the grade, heifer calves of this bull 

 such as any farmer can raise if he will but have rich blood in the bull 

 to start with, brought me $810, double what he cost me. It is hard to 

 make dairy farmers see that they want good well-bred stock them- 

 selves; next, that there are thousands of other farmers that want it 

 more than they do and are willing to pay for it. Consider, that 

 there is no one form of our live stock to-day that is so scarce as good 

 cows; that in the natural evolution of public conviction,^ cows will 

 be scarcer owing to weeding out of unfit cows and consequent reduc- 

 tion of the size of the herds; that the consumption of milk as a food 

 is increasing to an enormous extent and as a consequence is stiffen- 

 ing the prices of butter and cheese. In most of the butter and cheese 

 producing districts there is a noticeable lessening of production ow- 

 ing to the drainage of cows away to other sections for city milk 

 production. 



Consider, that iu all these city milk producing districts there are 

 but very few calves raised, while the cows are kept rarely more than 

 three years. 



Consider, that only one-half of all the calves are heifers and of 

 these but a small percentage reach cowhood, that consequently the 

 increase of cows in so great a dairy state as Wisconsin has been 

 only 5^ per cent, yearly from 1850 to 1900. Consider, that every 

 child born is a consumer of milk but not always of meat. 



CoJisider, the enormous increase in the population of this country, 

 vastly ahead of the increase in the cow population. Consider, all 

 these things as having a bearing on the future of the dairy industry 

 and then tell me if yon do not think there is a good prospect ahead 

 for the farmer who will go into the business*of producing and rearing 

 first class dairy cows, bred from sires of undoubted dairy parentage. 



