INTRODUCTION 



Present day competition has placed all industries on a 

 commercial basis. The successful merchant is the one who 

 can sell his wares at the lowest price and still make as large 

 as or a larger percentage of profit than his competitors. The 

 successful professional man is the one who receives the 

 greatest remuneration because of the value of his services 

 to his clients. The successful manufacturer is the one whose 

 methods enable him to produce an article and sell it at a price 

 as low as or lower than that asked by other manufacturers 

 and still make as great a profit. The farmer who produces 

 products on his farm for the least possible cost, quality con- 

 sidered, is the one who is successful. 



There has never been a time when the farmer could not 

 boast that of all humanity he alone is really independent. 

 To so great an extent has this been true and so well has it 

 generally become known among agriculturists that there is a 

 likelihood that the farmer has grown careless to a degree and 

 in his strife for higher prices has overlooked a very important 

 point ; namely, that a dollar saved in the cost of producing 

 100 pounds of any commodity is, in reality, a dollar made, 

 and probably the easiest dollar that could be made upon the 

 farm. 



This is especially true of the dairy farmer or the man on 

 the farm who milks cows. There is a general complaint all 

 over the land that the dairy business is very confining, and 

 where one farmer or farmer's son is found who likes to milk 

 there are 50 who would rather do any other farm labor. 

 Why? Because so many of the cows are not worth milking. 

 The conditions under which they are milked are repelling. 

 There are few farms on which there are not from 10 to 75 

 per cent of the cows that are absolutely making no profit 

 whatever and many that are a source of loss to their own- 

 ers. In the days when butter-fat was selling for 10 to 12 

 cents a pound, and a drug on the market at that, there 

 might have been some excuse for the manufacturer of dairy 

 products losing money on some of his cows, yet undoubt- 

 edly a larger percentage of the cows in those days were 

 making net profits for their owners than are at the present 

 time. When cows are kept upon land worth from $25 to 

 $50 an acre and can be fed corn worth from 10 to 12 cents 

 a bushel; oats, from 8 to 10 cents; bran, from $10 to $12 

 per ton; oil meal, from $10 to $20 per ton; hay, from $3 to 



[7] 



