Rep07't of Missouri Farmers' Week. 383 



milk must be tracked down and corrected. He must be a good 

 general farmer, a good buyer, a good salesman, a good business 

 man, and in addition have a smattering of chemistry, bacteriology, 

 pathology, veterinary science — and be a saint to boot, if he has the 

 "hired man problem" to deal with. I don't want to discourage any 

 fellow new to the game — he will get the rules as he plays his hand — 

 but I do want the kickers against high butter prices to realize 

 that the dairyman's lot is not always a bed of roses. Yet, in spite 

 of all, it is interesting and broadening and its advent into a neigh- 

 borhood brings better farm houses, better barns, better schools, 

 better roads, more general civilization and for the village mer- 

 chants things that are put on a cash basis. 



Dairying is a business just as much so as any manufacturing 

 plant. In it, two plus two results in four just as often as in other 

 lines. The rules that govern a factory are just as applicable to it, 

 for the dairy farm is a factory in which ''Old Bossie" is an ani- 

 mated machine for the conversion of raw material into milk, butter 

 or cheese, as the case may be. The farmer has a keener competi- 

 tion to meet than the ordinary factory, and he has no tariff to hide 

 behind. He can't get together in a "gentlemen's agreement," for 

 there are too many to hold the secret and think in unison. He has 

 got to play the game "according to Hoyle." That means to meet 

 competition by having, first, better cows — better machines ; second, 

 cheaper feeds — cheaper raw material. 



Many a manufacturing plant has thrown on the scrapheap 

 costly machinery simply because a newer machine would cheapen 

 the manufactured article. That is what the dairyman does when 

 he starts the process of weeding out his "boarders.' It's a losing 

 game for him to keep a cow that does not pay for cost of feed or 

 labor. Yet that is what hundreds of us are doing if we don't 

 keep the milk scales and Babcock test in use. To appreciate the 

 full significance of this, let us see what it means in dollars, taking 

 two hypothetical herds from which to get our data. There are 

 quite a number of cows up around the thousand-pound mark, while 

 the average for the State is not far above one hundred and fifty 

 pounds a year: 



One hundred cows making 1,000 pounds per year equals 100,- 

 000 pounds, at 30 cents, $30,000. 



One hundred cows making 150 pounds per year equals 15,000 

 pounds, at 30 cents, $4,500. 



This graphically shows a difference in favor of the better 

 machines of $25,500. Now, I know of mighty few farmers who can 



