458 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



average Iowa cow. I just want to show you what it would mean if the 

 cows of Iowa all could be made as good as that one grade cow which Vor- 

 hees took care of during the test, and that we are indebted to the Ameri- 

 can Jersey Cattle Club for sending to us as an object lesson. If you will 

 take 450 pounds of butter-fat — the difference between what this grade 

 Jersey produced over the average production of the Iowa cow, and multi- 

 ply that by 30c you will have $135, the excessive amount that this cow 

 has made over the average cow, and there are in this state today 1,500,- 

 000 cows. Multiply this by $135 and you will have the sum of over 

 two hundred and a half million dollars that these cows, if they could 

 be brought up to average the grade Jersey, would yield annually. Is it 

 worthy of your attention as progressive people? 



I sat on the platform the other night with Mr. Porter and I heard 

 him discuss the taxes that are levied in this state. Substantially less than 

 $4,000',000 we are taking in taxes to support our state government, and 

 we dwell on $100,000 or $200,000 that one administration requires more 

 or less than the other, but if you will consider, friends, for one moment 

 that we are spending less than $4,000,000 annually, and that the cow, 

 if we could average the Iowa cows up to this grade Jersey, the earnings 

 from that increase would pay the taxes of the state for 50 years. Is it 

 worthy of your attention? 



Let me say that if the cows in Iowa could be averaged up to this 

 cow Dairymaid the excess earnings over the present average cow would 

 amount to $300,000,000, an amount that would pay the national debt 

 every three years. Is it worthy of your attention? Is it worthy — is the 

 work that Barney, Van Pelt and Shoemaker have devoted their services 

 to, when these appalling figures of waste are shown you? It may not 

 be so. 



Then take the first three grade Jersey cows of this year's Iowa con- 

 test. What do you have? Substantially this; that the cows of Iowa, 

 if as good as the average of these three grade Jerseys, would earn you 

 $165,000,000 more than they are earning today. Is it worthy of your 

 attention? I think so. 



Now how are we to go about it to have these cows equal to the cows that 

 have gone through this test? I want to say there is just one way to do 

 it. We are indebted to Professor Babcock for a small machine that will 

 permit us to know, if we use it correctly, the work of every cow every 

 day in the year. The bread winners can be put where they belong 

 and cared for, and those that are not can be turned aside. If we weigh 

 and test the milk there wont be any trouble in locating the loafers. We 

 come up against thi's one thing. We find men who say, "Oh, I know 

 my cows without that trouble." I want to say, wise people, that you don't 

 know. I know that you don't know, and I am going to tell you something 

 to show you that you don't know. 



Over in Wisconsin a man by the name of Gillett owns the greatest 

 cow in the world. She made 998 pounds of fat in one year. Before Co- 

 lantha 4th's Johanna was tested, before her milk was weighed and the 

 Babcock test used, he sold a calf for one-twentieth of what it was 

 sold for after the test was made. 



