PREFACE Xi 



Josh Billings' would be: " Seek to know all that par- 

 ticular branch of the something in which you are en- 

 gaged." To possess as great and general a knowl- 

 edge as is practicable to obtain is desirable. A com- 

 plete knowledge of the business one is to follow is to 

 the highest degree important. But it is not possible 

 to obtain all this from any one source; no instructor 

 knows it all. 



The writer does not for one moment imagine that 

 he will be able in this volume to condense all that is 

 worth knowing on the broad subject of dairying. 

 New ideas and improved methods are being devel- 

 oped every day. Each writer should be able to add 

 to the work of his predecessors some new and val- 

 uable information. Nothing is more natural than 

 the desire to know the sources of information of 

 those who attempt to appear in the character of in- 

 structors, whether as writers or speakers. The fol- 

 lowing will serve in some degree to gratify this de- 

 sire, so far as the writer of this book is concerned. 



My father was one of the pioneer farmers of 

 northern Pennsylvania. I was born and reared on 

 the farm. My earliest recollections are connected 

 with the clearing of the land, the logging up and 

 burning of fallows. At the death of my father the 

 farm upon which I was born fell into my hands, and 

 I was compelled to make a study of the subject of 

 agriculture. About 1895 I became a lecturer on 

 agriculture in Pennsylvania, and from that time until 

 the winter of 1902-3 spent much of the institute sea- 

 son among the farmers of the State. From my asso- 

 ciates and the farmers with whom I was brought in 

 contact in this work, as well as from my own per- 



