EIGHTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART III. 83 



Question: Will you please repeat the amount of profits under 

 the two methods you speak of ? 



Mr. Van Pelt : The profits in the first instance were $1,627.62 ; 

 in the second instance, the profits were $3,596.50. 



Question: How would you first obtain that supply of cows 

 suitable for such an operation ; how would you keep up your supply 

 after you started? 



Mr. Van Pelt : That is a very important question, also quite 

 a perplexing question. It is much easier to select good cows from 

 a herd of pure bred cattle than it is of grade cattle. If one wishes 

 to stock up his farm with grade cows, he has quite a difficult task, 

 because in many instances it is difficult for him to determine the 

 value of these cows; it necessitates traveling around. One way is 

 to buy them on the market. This fall I was on the Chicago market. 

 I saw there a good number of dairy cows, as one would judge them, 

 simply seeing them. At the same time these cows are quite expen- 

 sive. Probably a better way would be to simply go through the 

 country and pick them up here and there. As a matter of fact, in 

 certain vicinities it is possible to buy exceedingly good grade cows. 

 For instance, you go into the vicinity of a breeder of pure bred 

 cows. He has sold to the neighborhood his bulls and bred their 

 cows for them. I know a vicinity where a great many graded cows 

 soM for $100 apiece. Then there are different methods of keijping 

 up a herd. The dairymen in the Elgin district, close to Chicago, 

 buy cows somewhat of a beefy nature; they milk them until they 

 are no longer profitable, and they are fattened for the market and 

 sold at beef prices. Then their cows that are springers, or fresh 

 are put in the place of those, and this is the manner in which a 

 great many progressive dairymen are doing. But the time for 

 this is almost past, because, as I said before, these grade cows are 

 selling for such enormous prices. To keep up a herd of pure bred 

 sires, the heifer calves that are dropped on the farm, are of much 

 merit, so that they can be raised much more cheaply than they can 

 be purchased. In this way the owner of them would at the same 

 time know what their ancestry has been and what they have done. 

 In this manner it is possible for the perpetuator of the farm to re- 

 ject the calves of poor cows. 



Question: If you raised the calves, wouldn't you have to make 

 allowance for raising them until they began to produce, and you 

 would have to make allowance for the young cows not producing 

 with a fully developed cow? 



