Missouri State Dairy Association. 401 



principles, the better it will be for everybody. The sooner all 

 sentiment is cut out of the business and the sooner we produce 

 the cream, manufacture the butter and sell it at the lowest 

 possible cost, the sooner will the dairy business be established 

 on a basis that will enable the industry to develop as it should. 

 Such, my friends, is the nature of the work carried on by 

 the Blue Valley educational department. We are striving to 

 do the greatest good to the greatest number of individual 

 farmers in helping them to get more and better cows and do 

 the greatest good we can to the dairy industry as a whole. To 

 this end it has been and will be dedicated. 



WHY THE FARMERS OF THE SOUTHWEST SHOULD MILK 



MORE COWS. 



(P. M. Brandt, dairy department. University of Missouri. Paper read at meeting of 



Southwest Jersey Breeders' Association.) 



The permanent prosperity of a nation must rest upon its 

 agriculture. Where agriculture has been decadent nations have 

 declined. The history of the past decade proves that the agri- 

 culture of this country, if not actually on the decline, is at a 

 standstill, and the result of this effects the producer and con- 

 sumer alike in one respect, i. e., a rapid increase in the cost of 

 living. This is a fact recognized by farseeing men to such an 

 extent that at the present time we find some of the strongest 

 minds of the country grappling with the problem of putting 

 our agriculture on a permanent and sound basis. This has 

 become a near national issue. 



The prosperity of our agriculture depends very largely 

 upon the condition of our soil fertility. One does not have to 

 travel far over almost any railroad in the country before he 

 sees the direct relation between the fertility of the soil and the 

 outward appearances of prosperity on the part of the people 

 farming it. The same is true of large sections of country, of 

 states and of nations. The fertility of the soil of our nation 

 is being rapidly depleted. 



The new lands of our country that can be profitably farmed 

 are practically all occupied. The only course left for the 

 American farmer to pursue is to adopt a system of farming 

 that will not only build up and maintain, but will increase the 

 production of the land. The dairy cow seems to be the means 

 through which a part of our farmers are destined to do this. 



