State Dairy Association. 415 



Trusting I have fully covered the subject, I leave the results 

 to be digested by my fellow farmers and dairymen, and willing at 

 all times to answer questions to the best of my ability. 



IMPROVED DAIRY METHODS. 



(.By J. E. Roberts, Bolckow, Mo.) 



In improving our methods of dairying I can see no better way 

 than to improve on the class of labor we employ. We should have 

 at least one man who has had some training at one of our best 

 dairy schools. Of course some of these young men are somewhat 

 technical at first, but they soon get over that when coming in con- 

 tact with the practical work. 



Now if you wanted a decent hen coop built the first thing you 

 would do is to employ a carpenter; yet you will employ in your 

 dairy, where it requires as much brains and skill as to build one of 

 our modern structures of today, a man who knows simply nothing 

 about the care and feeding of cows, one who does not know there 

 is any difference in the feeding properties of clover and timothy 

 hay. These men may be bright and energetic, and with training 

 would make good dairymen, but they lack that one thing — training. 

 It looks like up-hill business to pay these men a salary to experi- 

 ment with your stock and dairy equipment, yet this is what a great 

 many of us are doing today. I would like to ask if you ever thought 

 of the difference between the two men ; one who chooses dairying 

 as his profession, who has spent his time and money for an edu- 

 cation in this line, or the other who takes no interest in his work, 

 but simply puts in his time, and is continually hunting a new job. 

 The former chooses this work because he likes it, because his mind 

 and ability leads him in that direction, the other because he finds 

 nothing else to do. Now I have had experience along this line and 

 think I know whereof I speak. 



Some few years ago I employed a young man who had been a 

 student at the Baron de Hirsch School of Woodbine, N. J., and, 

 by the way, was a pupil of our friend, Commissioner Washburn. 

 This boy taught me things in dairying that were invaluable. When 

 this man came to my place the first thing he asked me was "where 

 is the silo?" I told him I had none. I had read a great deal about 

 the silo, but the necessity of one had never been so strongly im- 

 pressed on my mind before. This fellow talked "silo" from day- 



