296 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



interests in this country as a whole? Have these high class dairy animals 

 had the influence upon the average dairy herds of the country that they 

 should have had? 



In traveling over Holland I was much impressed with the general good 

 quality of the cows in the average producing herd. The average cows in 

 that country are very far ahead of the average cows here. There is little de- 

 mand from the majority of our dairymen for blood of a strictly dairy breed 

 and too frequently pure-bred bull calves of good quality and breeding are a 

 drug on the market. 



Let us look for a moment at the dairy conditions as they exist in some 

 sections. Last summer I was visiting some of the creameries in the southern 

 portion of Illinois in company with one of the assistants in our department. 

 The afternoon of the third day, as we were driving along a country road, 

 our attention was attracted by two Holstein-Friesian calves in the pasture. 

 My companion stopped the horse suddenly and took off his hat out of re- 

 spect for their courage in braving it alone in a strange land. I mention 

 this little incident simple to impress upon you the fact that we had been 

 traveling for three days in what was supposed to be a creamery region and 

 yet these two calves were the first evidence we had seen of any strictly dairy 

 blood. It is needless to add that the creameries in that region were receiv- 

 ing but little milk or cream. 



Evidently the average dairyman is not giving much attention to the kind 

 of cows he is breeding, if, indeed, he is breeding at all. In many dairy 

 sections dairymen simply purchase their cows, milk them as long as they 

 are considered profitable, and then dispose of them to the butcher. If the 

 cows are bred at all, the calves, even from the best cows, are disposed of 

 for almost nothing when only a few days old, as they think it requires too 

 much milk to raise a calf-. 



Stick to one occupation; try to decide what that occupation is you wish 

 to follow, then stick to it. Farmers do not stick to one thing. I tell the 

 students and tell the farmers, especially young farmers, that they should 

 decide what branch of agriculture they wish to engage in and then stick to 

 it. If, for example, a man is going to be a dairyman, it takes certain 

 amount of skill along certain lines to be a high class dairyman. He has to 

 have certain equipment of building and other things to be a first-class dairy- 

 man, and after he has this equipment then he does not want to throw this 

 knowledge aside and go into beef production, swine production or sheep 

 production, or horses or anything of that kind. 



We have come to the point where we should be able to see that there is 

 plenty of money in any of these lines of breeding, if we get to the top. 

 There is plenty of money to be made in any of these lines, but we are making 

 a mistake in changing; the American farmer is too fickle in changing from 

 one thmg to another. As a rule, he is giving to raising beef cattle when it 

 is high, and selling out when low; going into dairy cattle because dairy 

 products are high. 



Common observation teaches us that cows differ greatly in the amount of 

 milk and butter fat they produce in the same period of time, but it does not 

 inform us whether the food consumption differs in proportion to the yield, or 

 whether one cow may actually manufacture more than another out of the 

 same amount of feed. The question then arises, will two cows fed on like 



