SIXTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— P4RT V. 409 



I would recommend the practice of winter dairying. First, for tlie 

 reason that dairy products command a better price on the marltet; 

 second, for the reason that farm labor is cheaper during the winter and 

 other farm duties are not so pressing as to divert our attention from 

 many details that conduce to the comfort and well doing of our ani- 

 mals; third, for the reason that I believe it a more favorable time foi- 

 the early growth of the calf; and fourth, and chiefly for the reason that, 

 by the use of warm comfortable stables, the succulent ensiloed corn 

 crop, good hay and a liberal grain ration, a maximum flow of milk 

 can be maintained for a longer time during the lactation period and at 

 3, minimum cost of production. 



The gun and the man behind it is the combination that does the 

 most effective execution and there is still needed in American dairy 

 husbandry, more intelligence and a broader dairy education. Our 

 lawyers, our clergymen, our physicians and all our professional men are 

 given years of mental training in our colleges, preparatory to launch- 

 ing into the actual business operations of their chosen professions, but 

 the farmer boy usually finishes his training in the country schools and 

 at an age when he little realizes the importance of mental discipline. 

 But, however, this may be, he receives no special training that touches 

 upon agricultural education. To be sure he knows how to hold a 

 plow, how to drive a team and how to milk a cow, but he knows no 

 more about the composite elements of the soil than he knws about 

 law; no more about a well balanced ration for a dairy cow than he 

 knows about preaching; and no more about the principles of breeding 

 than he knows about medicine, until he is thrown into contact with 

 these propositions in actual business life, where, if he learns at all, 

 he learns by experience, which is often an expensive teacher. And so 

 I say, there is need of a broader education, not necessarily in classical 

 training, but along the lines of our life's occupation. 



It has been said; "he who makes two blades of grass grow where 

 but one grew before is a public benefactor", so there can be no ques- 

 tion as to the position the live stock husbandman holds in the affairs 

 of American agricultural progress and expansion, but with a broader 

 and more thorough education in special lines of industry and the 

 practical application of such, there are greater prospects in sight, even 

 greater possibilities for him who "follows the path of the cow". 



DISCUSSION. 



The Chairman : Gentlemen we have a few moments which 

 you may devote to asking Mr. Gillette any questions. If any- 

 body in the audience would like to ask Mr. Gillette a question, 

 we would like to have him do so. 



