386 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



many of the dairymen as possible, and particularly the leading ones. 

 On this trip he makes a close study, not only of the methods em- 

 ployed, but of the dairymen themselves, as it will be necessary 

 later for him to select some eight or ten of them with whom to co- 

 operate. Energetic young men who are inclined to improve their 

 work are preferable. It is unnecessary for a man to have a large 

 herd of cattle for our work, and we prefer to work with the small 

 herd if the owner is all right. It does not matter even if the barn 

 is crude and the equipment meagre if the owner is a man who will 

 think for himself, and will apply a lesson when once it is learned. 

 The selection of the men with whom to work is so very important 

 that upon it depends, in a large measure, the success or failure of 

 the work. No specific agreement with the dairyman is necessary, 

 since the assistance he receives is absolutely free. It is impossible 

 to be certain about the selection of a man until he has been tried 

 in the work, hence it sometimes happens that after the field man 

 has worked for a month or so with a dairyman he finds that his work 

 is going to be entirely useless, hence the man is discontinued at 

 once. In beginning work with a dairyman the field man studies 

 very carefully the surrounding conditions, how the product is 

 handled and sold, how the cattle are fed, the quality of the cattle, 

 etc. He then shows the dairyman where there are possibilities of 

 losses and endeavors to get him to do such things that show up the 

 losses if they exist. For example, the average dairy cow in the 

 southern states produces about 123 pounds of butter fat per an- 

 num, and a good dairy cow in that section as in all other, produces 

 300 pounds or more. Thus in the majority of cases it is found that 

 some of the cows in the herd are very inferior. The field man 

 might recognize this at a glance, but that doesn't amount to any- 

 thing since before the inferior cow can be removed, the owner must 

 be convinced that they are inferior, and methods suited to that 

 end must therefore be adopted. 



Our plan is this : We show him the difference in the profit of 

 a good cow and a poor one, make the calculation, if necessary, show- 

 ing that a good cow will make a profit of $50.00 per annum, while 

 a poor one will not pay for her feed. Then we ask him if he knows 

 to what extent these two kinds of cows are present in his herd. 

 If we succeed in getting his interest, we offer to provide him with 

 milk and feed record blanks, and to lend him milk scales for a time, 

 that he may determine what each animal in his herd is producing. 

 If he will promise to make the records for a month, we promise 

 to return to his place at the end of the month and to test the herd 



