EIGHTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII. 349 



BREEDING UP THE DAIRY HERD. 



p. J. JULIAN, ALGONA, IOWA. 



Mr. President, Fellow Dairy Farmers of Iowa: Between myself and 

 the newspaper men the address I had prepared for this occasion has dis- 

 appeared, so I will be obliged to give you what is called an impromptu 

 address. 



When a man enters upon any proposition or trade it seems to me that 

 he should give considerable thought, time and study to that proposition or 

 trade. Before I go on I would like to know how many real farmers I 

 have in the audience. How many men in this audience are milking cows 

 at the present time? Well there are a few, but not as many as we ought 

 to have in the country surrounding Des Moines. As my subject pertains 

 to you especially, it would seem to me that the dairy farmer or the farmer 

 milking, no matter how many cows, should be here to hear what can be 

 said on the subject, because, as I said before, when he or anyobdy else 

 enters on a trade or proposition, he should study^ up everything per- 

 taining to that before engaging in that occupation, so as to be as well 

 posted as it is possible to be. 



Now then, when a farmer enters on the production of milk the first 

 thing that suggests itself to him is what kind of cows am I going to keep? 

 What am I after, fun or profit? Now there is no one that thinks it much 

 fun to milk cows twice a day, night and morning, year in and year out, 

 but you can have more fun if you milk the dual purpose cow than you 

 can if you milk the special purpose cow, because the dual purpose cow 

 does not give much milk for a long time and you can have lots of fun 

 during that time, while on the other hand the special purpose cow is 

 pegging away all the time and at the end of the year you will have a profit 

 and if a profit does not make a man feel good I don't know what does. 



Now in selection of the dairy cow you want to look first to type. I 

 am aware that there is a sentiment prevailing largely in the minds of 

 Iowa people that the dual purpose cow is the cow for Iowa. That has 

 been instilled and pounded into their minds for all time by the editorial 

 press because they could raise a steer beef for less, losing sight of the 

 fact that butter and milk was the main object they were striving for. 

 Now it is true that in times past and perhaps up until very recently the 

 dual purpose cow had a place on the farm in Iowa. Lands were cheap, 

 grass was plenty, and the fact is that not more than twenty years ago a 

 man could keep all the cattle he wanted at the expense of herding, hiring 

 a herdsman or paying 40 or 50 cents a head to keep those cattle five 

 months in the year, and the other seven months he could keep them on 

 coarse forage that cost him practically nothing, because I have within 

 the past twenty years put up hay on other people's land, people who had 

 it for speculation, for the cost of labor, and at that rate a man could milk 



