3o8 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



With our constantly increasing population it is only a matter of time, 

 if the quality is kept up to the standard of extras, until we will be com- 

 pelled to import unless Y>^e greatly increase the output. From the 

 statistics furnished by the late report of the dairy commissioner it is 

 approximately estimated that the annual make of butter for this state is 

 140,000,000 pounds, this includes butter made on farm and dairy and is 

 valued at $28,000,000. By intelligent breeding, feeding and caring 

 for the cows properly I believe it possible with the same number of cows 

 to produce twice this amount of butter. 



For some unexplained reason, practically all the work done in dairy- 

 ing has been on the manufacturers side, \vhile the producer who ins 

 the mainstay of the business has been neglected. We have in this 

 state two traveling dairy instructors and they are both men that we have 

 reason to be proud of, and we could use half a dozen more along the 

 same line of work to great advantage. Now if we could have about 

 six good, reliable men in this state to test herds and give information 

 on feeding and breeding to farmers, what a wonderful upbuilding it 

 would be to the dairy industry. 



It is true that some of our Experiment Stations have done good 

 work in milk production, but many have worked on such a small scale, 

 keeping a few cows under abnormal conditions in expensive barns, that 

 their work has not appealed to the practical farmer. The value of 

 any experiment depends upon its adaptability to general use. We as 

 dairymen do not sufficiently organize and keep the importance of the 

 dairy business before the public. When we take into consideration 

 that the value of the Iowa dairy products, including cows, calves, but- 

 ter and cheese, is about $70,000,000, we can realize the importance 

 of the dairy industry of the state, yet in looking over our leading 

 agricultural journals it is very selddm that we notice a cut of a good 

 dairy cow or sire, while on the other hand we invariably find a large 

 cut, generally on the first page, of a beef animal. In the back part of 

 the paper you may find a few notes on dairying. There is certainly 

 very little encouragement given to the dairy people by such a paper. 



The business man, however, looks at dairying from a different 

 standpoint. This is well illustrated by an interview given by a repre- 

 sentative of the Harvest Machine Trust sometime ago in which he 

 said that it was his custom to learn whether the prospective buyer 

 depended upon grain and hogs alone for his income, or milked cows. 

 When he has ascertained this he knows how much cash in hand he 

 will get and how much credit he will be forced to extend, as farmers 

 who keep cows have been turning in 75 per cent cash and 25 per cent 

 in notes, while farmers who are devoting themselves to grain and 

 bogs and "haven't time to milk a cow" are turning in 25 per cent 

 cash and 75 per cent in notes. The harvester collector is simply 

 accusing the Iowa farmer of a neglectfulness that comes close to 

 being "shiftless." He is saying over what everyone knows when he 

 puts the cows and the cash together. Hard times affect the dairy sec- 

 tion least of all. Crop failures do not bring general disaster to a dairy 

 farm as they invariably do to the corn and hog farmer. Corn, cows 



