336 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



Fl'TURE OF THE DAIRY INDUSTRY IN MISSOURI. 



(By Geo. B. Ellis.) 



Mr. President. — For the dairyman who has had many years of suc- 

 cessful experience lo get up before an audience and tell what he has 

 done and how he did it is an easy task ; for the scientist who has worked 

 out some scientific principle, to prove it to others is not a difficult thing 

 to do ; but to lift the veil that covers the dark future and tell what may 

 be expected to come to pass is entirely a different and a more difficult 

 proposition. 



It has been said that we can judge the future only by the past. 

 Now I think the past a poor standard for judging the future. This 

 we know by the past itself. The industrial progress of the first half 

 of the 19th century would have been a poor standard by which to meas- 

 ure the last half of the same century. And yet notwithstanding this 

 we can draw some reasonable conclusions of the future by what we have 

 learned in the past. This we know; the people of the world must be 

 fed ; and the people who are engaged in producing the staple food 

 products are sure of a permanent business. The food products of the 

 world may be divided into four classes: animal, cereal, vegetable and 

 fruit. These are all essential to the welfare of the human race, and the 

 man who is engaged in producing any or all of these products need not 

 be afraid of not having a permanent business, but he must study the 

 conditions both present and future to know which may be the most 

 profitable. 



I want to make this broad statement : The nations of the earth 

 which have achieved greatest success and all the nations which are 

 achieving any great degree of success are countries where the live stock 

 interests have been developed to a high degree. If this be true, and 

 I fear no contradiction on this statement, if Missouri would become a 

 great commonwealth, if the people of Missouri would become foremost 

 among the people of this great nation, they must strive to develop the 

 live stock industry of the State to the highest possible limit. Can we 

 do it? 



The most perfect environment that goes to produce fine quality in 

 live stock is found in Missouri. The money the northern farmer must 

 spend for fuel or cost of barns we have to buy bran or oil meal ; the 

 money the southern farmer spends for commercial fertilizers or extra 

 feed when his grass is brown under the burning sun. we can spend for 

 cottonseed meal. We can produce corn and wheat more cheaply than 



