M, *m 



MRS. ARTHUR HOWARD 

 "Ska goes to Home 

 Bureau meefings." 



THE HOWARD HOME 

 "Rebuilt after a tornado went through.' 



THE BOSS AND CARNATION CHANCELLOR 

 "H!s tire a National Grand Champion." 



The Story of Arthur Howard, Farm Bureau Member, 

 A Dairyman and Holstein Breeder 



By HOWARD C. HILL 



^ //rTHUR HOWARD, well- 

 ^\/ 1 known dairyman, Holstein 

 ' breeder and Farm Bureau 

 member, has passed away.* I spent the 

 last three and one-half hours of his life 

 with him on his 130 acre farm in Kane 

 County. 1 had never known him before, 

 but I shall never forget him as a friend. 



I drove up to his house one morning 

 in mid-November. The Howard farm 

 lies between Dundee and Elgin, across 

 the road from the Yeoman City of Child- 

 hood. Mrs. Howard informed me that 

 I would find him in the barn. 



He was there with his beloved Holstein 

 cattle. It was a chilly day, but he was 

 dressed only in overalls, a workshirt and 

 a leather jacket unbuttoned. He greeted 

 me with a smile, a perfect picture of 

 health. To look at him, one would never 

 have known that he was 57 years old. 

 His hair was full, his cheeks red and his 

 blue eyes sparkling. From the first mo- 

 ment I set eyes on him, I liked him. 



I told him that I had come to write a 

 story about him. His eyes twinkled as 

 much as to question why anyone would 

 want a story about him. He started right 

 in to tell me about his four children. 

 Ralph, 20, he said, is a Junior at the 



* Mr. Howard was gored to death by an 

 aged and trusted Holstein bull, — not the 

 one in the picture — • less than half an hour 

 after he was interviewed for this story. The 

 animal knocked him down and trampled him 

 while he was leading it from the barn. 



22 



University of Illinoi*. Robert, 27, the 

 eldest, is testing cowis in Lake County. 

 (Robert has since returned to the farm 

 and is running it at the present time). 

 Dorothy, 23, the only daughter, is teach- 

 ing school near Dundee. Arthur Jr., 13, 

 the baby of the family, is in eighth grade 

 and will start to high school next fall. 



"Nothing like starting with a good 

 education," Mr. Howard said. It was 

 then I discovered he had attended the 

 two-year short course in agriculture at 

 the University of Wisconsin in 1904-05. 

 His main interest in college was crops. 



I started to ask questions, but he re- 

 fused to answer them until I had seen his 

 purebred cattle. He had started this 

 splendid black and white herd many 

 years ago with two or three cows. Now, 

 his stock includes 46 head, 22 milk cows, 

 10 calves, four bulls and the rest yearling 

 heifers. 



We passed the pen of a magnificent 

 bull. I asked about him. The little 

 man's face lit up as he told me that the 

 animal was Carnation Chancellor, son of 

 the Grand Champion, Carnation Master- 

 piece. 



"Don't you ever show him?" I in- 

 quired. 



"No," he laughed, "I don't have time. 

 The kids have shown the calves at 4-H 

 Club shows and have done pretty well. 

 Arthur Jr. showed two last summer at 

 the fair in Elgin. He won first with one, 

 and second with the other." 



I started to take a picture of Chancellor 

 in his pen, but Mr. Howard would have 



none of it. Nothing would do but that 

 the animal be taken outdoors in the light. 

 Several of the finer cows were also led 

 outside to be photographed. 



"Send me the ones you don't use," he 

 said laughingly. 



After every cow had been seen, Mr. 

 Howard finally answered a few questions 

 about himself. He couldn't seem to un- 

 derstand why anyone could be inter- 

 ested in what he was doing. He finally 

 admitted that he was awarded a gold 

 medal last year for having the highest 

 production average in Class C in the 

 United States. Class C includes cows 

 milked twice a day. Mr. Howard's best 

 cow produced 736 pounds of butterfat. 

 The herd averaged 521 pounds. 



In answer to a question why he was 

 successful with cattle, Mr. HoWard 

 said: "Well, after 25 years of constant 

 testing, culling, eliminating poor pro- 

 ducers from the herd and feeding 

 a balanced ration according to pro- 

 duction, I ought to have some results by 

 this time." 



Mr. Howard was convinced a high 

 producing cow should be fed more 

 grain than lower producers. Variety 

 of feed that cows relish should be in- 

 cluded in the ration, he said. The ra- 

 tion he fed his herd that day consisted 

 of 200 pounds of ground corn, 100 



Eounds of bran, 100 pounds of dried 

 rewer's grain and 50 pounds of gluten 

 meal. 



When asked about including soybean 

 oil meal in the dairy ration, Mr. Howard 

 stated that he was just beginning to use 



L A. A. RECORD 



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