STATE DAIRY ASSOCIATION. 287 



The accommodations I had were such as any farmer could provide. 

 While the cows that I had were probably better than the average farmer 

 could get, yet there were in that herd cows that were no better than those 

 we find throughout the northwest. 



After completing the year's record — and I thought that that one 

 year's record would answer the question as to the cost of production and 

 what the profits would be at ruling prices — I published a bulletin and 

 made the announcement. In a general way the results were satisfactory. 

 There was, taking the whole herd, a good profit in the dairy, charging 

 the cows with the feed they consumed and crediting them with the milk 

 and butter fat that they yielded. 



DAIRY FORM. 



But in lookmg over the profits, I found some cows made a great 

 deal more than others, some twice as much as others. Indeed my rec- 

 ords showed the same results that were exhibited to you here this 

 morning by Prcf. Washburn. We continued the work for three or 

 four years and we found with our sixth year the same story was told, 

 that some cows produced reasonably large yields at little cost, while 

 others made small yields at relatively large costs, and when we came 

 to sift the truth down in regard to the cow that made the best return 

 and gave us the large profits, wq found that it was a certain style of 

 cow. Just as you know that a certain style of horse will make a good 

 trotter; just as you know that a certain type of horse will draw a heavy 

 load, or a certain kind of dog will do a certain kind of service, so a 

 certain type of cow will produce milk and butter. In every day's work, 

 in every week's, month's or year's result we found the same story. 



Now it seemed to me if I could present this to the people of Min- 

 nesota or the dairymen of the West, and show them the kind of cow 

 that gave such large returns at uniformly such a small cost, that every 

 man who was at all interested in the dairy would in a very short time 

 get that kind of cows ; so I distributed my bulletin throughout the 

 state of Minnesota, telling them the results that I found, and what was 

 the outcome of it? Today in Minnesota there are fewer dairy-bred 

 cows than there were ten years ago when I came to the state. Today 

 there are fewer dairy-bred herds in that state than there were ten years 

 ago. Now why is this? There is no question about the truth of this 

 work. There is no question but that the dairy cow will earn more than 

 double the amount per year than the common cow will, and yet the 

 average farmer uses the common cow. 



