366 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



this is true, that the survival of the fittest is sure to win. You 

 say your patrons will take their goods to the centralizing plants, 

 but I have always found it to be a fact that if the poorer stuff 

 that came to my creamery could all go to my neighbor, and the 

 less I had of it and the more he had of it, the sooner I could 

 put him out of business. 



The Chairman : We will have to stop the discussion of this 

 question. We have with us this afternoon Professor C. F. 

 Curtiss, of Ames, who will address us. 



ADDRESS. 



PROF. C. F. CURTISS, AMES, lA. 



Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: When your secretary, Mr. 

 Kieffer, spoke to me about taking a place on this program, he sug- 

 gested he would like to have me talk about cows. I take it that more 

 of you gentlemen in this audience are Interested in the products of the 

 cow than in the cow herself, and yet the cow lies at the basis of your 

 industry and without success there without good work there, and right 

 methods there the industry will suffer and we cannot expect to make 

 the progress that we hope to make in the dairy industry without due 

 attention to this phase of the work. We have made considerably more 

 progress, I believe, in the manufacturing side than in the producing 

 side and in discussing the question of cows this afternoon I want to 

 invite your attention, in a preliminary way, to the environment that 

 surrounds some of the dairy breeds of cows in their native home. 



I believe in the study of animals that it is important to examine 

 first environment, because environment is an important factor in affect- 

 ing animal life in all forms from man down, and as we advance up the 

 scale of animal life we find environment to be a more and more potent 

 factor with the higher animals than with the lower animals. Conse- 

 quently, we will do well to give a little attention to the surroundings, 

 the original conditions under which our breeds have developed. 



In this state the Jersey and the Holstein are the leading dairy breeds; 

 in some other states the other breeds will take prominent rank. But 

 in looking at these breeds, we find the Jersey is a native of one of the 

 channel islands. The channel islands are located in the English chan- 

 nel; there are several of them but we hear most about the Jersey and 

 Guernsey. The group consists of Jersey, Guernsey, Aldernej and a 

 number of smaller ones. The Jersey is a native of the Jersey island. 

 It is a mere speck of rock in the English channel, it is only five miles 



