168 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



DAIRY ECONOMICS. 



BY EX-GOV. "W. D. HOARD, FORT ATKINSON, WIS. 



The other day an old farmer friend of mine, hearing I was 

 going to Massachusetts, asked me what I was going to talk 

 about. I replied " Dairy Economics." He looked a little 

 puzzled, and said, "What's that?" I knew him to be a 

 close thinker and a most thorough manager of cows, and yet 

 my topic was as Greek to him. And the more I have studied 

 it, the more I find it is too big for me. Webster defines 

 economics as the " science of utilities, or the useful applica- 

 tion of wealth or material resources." So you see there is a 

 very wide field here, and you need not wonder if I very 

 inadequately fill it. 



There has been a wonderful marshalling of thought, and 

 both practical and scientific investigation on the question of 

 dairy farming in the last thirty years. No other branch of 

 agriculture has been so greatly enriched by the best thought 

 of the age. This is partly due, I' think, to the fact that the 

 dairy farmers are so largely organized in creameries and 

 cheese factories. Such organization has served greatly to 

 place them within the light. If he chooses, the dairyman 

 can face it, and learn what it has to disclose. He can also 

 turn his back to it, as hundreds and thousands are doing. 



This light has come very largely from scientific men like 

 Dr. Babcock, in his discovery of the famous milk test and 

 w 'hat the agent is that cures cheese ; from the bacteriologists, 

 in their investigations into the diseases of cattle and the 

 causes of milk deterioration ; from Henry, Roberts, Jordan, 

 Armsby and others, in their investigation concerning the 

 economy of food assimilation ; from the students of scientific 

 breeding, who are patiently exploring this great and mys- 

 terious field for a knowledge of the physiological principles 



