SIXTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART V. 339 



spreading the dairy gospel. My only regret is that not more people 

 attend these conventions. I recently came from a meeting ot 

 this kind in one of the Southern states where dairying should be one 

 of the great industries and where a small number was present. I am 

 glad that Iowa and some of the other states have created a different 

 condition and more of the people are interested in attending these con- 

 ventions. 



One of the educational features that has helped in dairy work is 

 the municipal state and dairy laws. We always have men who have 

 to be guided, and our municipal authorities have been active in forc- 

 ing the production of a pure article of milk for consumption in the 

 cities. This line of education is one that is compulsory to a good 

 many people. It should be more so; it should reach into the country 

 where the farmer is producing a poor article of milk and bring him 

 into line, and make him *;e the necessity (if he will not from any other 

 cause) the necessity of producing a good article of milk to sell to his 

 creamery or cheese factory, or ship to his buyer. 



All those varied lines of influence have improved the dairy industry 

 faster than any other branch of agriculture, and yet we ought to do 

 more than we are doing, we know a great deal less about dairying 

 than we ought to; there is much more to be learned than we already 

 know. You take the question of breeding dairy animals. I venture 

 to say that fully 50 per cent of the pure bred herds, so called, in this 

 country, are probably scrubs and should not be allowed in the dairy 

 herd at all. Yet those 50 per cent of poor producers go right on pro- 

 ducing a large and larger increasing supply of dairy animals that are 

 not doing what they should at the milk pall. Perhaps some of the 

 breeders will take exception to this statement, but it is true neverthe- 

 less. You can take the reports of any dairy herd and you will find s 

 large percent of that herd that are not good producing dairy animals. 

 We have given too much attention to fancy points in breeding, to the 

 length of the tail, the color of the hair, the curl of the horn an:l have 

 learned to think they are indications of good cows, forgetting that the 

 best cow is the one that gives so much milk or butter fat la the milk 

 pail. It is only recently that I saw a judge score a herd of cov.'s. He 

 selected the first, second and third for award, and after he gr**: through 

 he said that the one cow he gave third to was a better pro Incer than 

 tne one given first. To the practical dairyman, such as we have in 

 Iowa, the best cow to have is the one that will put her product in the 

 milk pail. She may not have as nice a horn as the cow that would 

 get tir<?t prize at the show rings, but is the cow that will bring the 

 money in and I believe when our breeders learn to know the needs of 

 the dairymen that are selling milk, the/ will come nearer to breeclinp- a 

 class of stock that will be of profit to the dairymen of our country. 

 It is too bad those things are so but it shows we need move knowledge 

 in the scientific problems of dairying. 



Another drawback in the work of breeding pure bred cattle is the 

 fact that too many of our records have been made for short periods. 

 We find too many breeders making a one week's record, or perhaps e. 



