440 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



skim-milk, calf and fertilizing ingredients of the offal to pay for the labor 

 expended upon her. In other words, the dairyman or farmer has con- 

 tented himself with milking a cow over 700 times for a net profit of $1. 



We, as farmers and dairymen, are prone to complain about the drudgery 

 on the dairy farm and about the scarcity and high price of farm labor. 

 Still the proprietor of a farm, one of the greatest factories of the United 

 States, is willing to sit under a cow night and morning over 700 times a 

 year and milk her for the meager profit of $1. 



Considering her stable companion, however, that has made 400 pounds 

 of butter which when sold at 30 cents per pound will return $120, she 

 may be fed $60 worth of feed and still return a net profit of $60 for her 

 owner. It means that this cow, making 60 times as much profit as the 

 other cow is worth at least a whole herd, numbering 60, of the less pro- 

 ductive type. 



This is the condition that faces the American farmer and dairyman to- 

 day and he, and he alone, can by intelligent methods so select and care for 

 his cows as to make them all return him a large percentage of profit. 



On the other hand we realize that your farms are your farms and your 

 cows are your cows, and you are at liberty to do as you like. You can milk 

 one cow for a year and make a net profit of $60 or you can milk 60 cows 

 for the same period of time in order to make the same amount of profit. 

 In other words, you can milk one cow one year to make a profit of $60 or 

 you can milk the same kind of an old cow 60 years in order to make the 

 same $60 of profit. 



However, we know the American farmer well enough to be certain that 

 he will not knowingly milk a whole herd of cows to make the profit which 

 one cow should make, and those who are willing to take time to weigh 

 and test each individual cow's milk to determine which cow is which can 

 readily sort out and retain only the profitable cows for their future herds. 



As farmers we should realize that in reality the farmer is a manufac- 

 turer. Our farms are the greatest manufacturing plants in the world and 

 every animal that we have on them, no matter what else it may be, is a 

 machine placed there for the purpose of manufacturing finished products 

 out of the raw materials, the grains and grasses grown in the fields. And 

 I say to you that the farmers of the United States will never reach their 

 highest plain of dignity until they realize their positions in commercialism 

 as manufacturers. 



It is a well known fact that greater percentages of profit can be made 

 from raw materials by using efficient machines, those that are durable and 

 capacious, than machines that are out of date and wasteful. When we 

 will accept the highest type of present day machines for the manufacture 

 of milk and butter-fat and then give them the proper care and treatment 

 which is due them we will have solved the problem of great and economic 

 production. We will thereby gain in both quantity and quality of produc- 

 tion and by so doing will have demonstrated that our farms are the great- 

 est factories on earth. 



You say to me if we all had good cows there would be no market for 

 the butter. However, I am confident in our lives we will never see the 



