344 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT, 



When a dairyman admits that he can't learn anything about his 

 business by a discriminating reading of books and periodicals he is in a 

 bad way. The difficulty with his case is that he won't take his medi- 

 cine; he's not receptive; he needs an arrest of thought. Let us hope 

 there are only a few of the species left and that they will wake up to 

 the value of mental growth. All we ask of the intensely practical dairy 

 farmer, is a realization of the fact that the world is progressing, and 

 that the man who is unwilling to admit it is going to get left in the race. 



It is true that ''of the making of books there is no end," and many 

 authors simply befog their readers with stuff which at best is visionary, 

 impracticable or prejudiced. I think this is less true today than ever 

 before. Scientific writers are more careful of their statements and less 

 theoretical glittering generalities and more facts proven by experience 

 and reason appear in the agricultural writings of today. After all the 

 same test must be applied that is used to judge a man who is looking 

 for financial credit. Discrimination in reading is a rare and valuable 

 gift. "Many credulous persons swallow everything they see in print as 

 though there were something sacred about type-set matter. It's the 

 man behind the pen you want to look for and the first questions to ask 

 are "Who is the writer?" What has he done to justify a perusal of his 

 offering ?" It does not follow that everything by a ' well known or 

 classical author is to be accepted as the law and the gospel. 



It is said that the copy readers for the great magazines accept or 

 reject an article by its opening chapter. In a measure this habit of the 

 judicial mind may be used to estimate a scientific article on breeding, 

 selecting of dairy cattle, sanitary methods of handling milk and any 

 other topic wherein the writer claims an audience. It after all is a mat- 

 ter of faith unless you are reading on a subject with which you are 

 better acquainted than the author. Fortunate is he who has a reason 

 for the faith that is in him. Just as unfortunate is the skeptical habit 

 of mind which locks the treasure house of knowledge against the search- 

 er for truth. 



B'y an increasing knowledge of human nature one is enabled to know 

 by a man's voice and manner when he is telling the truth. In the same 

 way, bv reading between the lines, the reader may by practice winnow 

 the grain from the chaff or, I might better say, separate the cream 

 from the skim milk. Lord Bacon, I believe, expressed this thought 

 thus: "Read— not to believe and take for granted, nor to confute and 

 contradict; nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider." 

 I have dwelt upon this idea of discrimination in reading dairy liter- 

 ature, for I believe it to be the key, the open sesame, to intellectual 



