No. 4.] DAIRY ECONOMICS. 109 



that must govern the outcome of all effort, whether intelli- 

 gent or ignorant ; from such profound students as Professor 

 King, who, in his late work, " The Physics of Agriculture," 

 has thrown a flood of light on principles and effects which 

 should govern in the construction of farm buildings and 

 stables and the growth of farm plants, as well as thousands 

 of other matters and things which pertain to an intelligent 

 understanding of the work we have in hand to do. The 

 scientist is unfolding the truth much faster than the farmer 

 is assimilating and applying it. 



It is to be greatly regretted that so many farmers have a 

 prejudice against learning anything from what they can 

 read. They call it "book farming." This is the plea of 

 ignorance, not intelligence. What would be our condition 

 if the same prejudice prevailed in society against ' ' book " 

 law, "book" medicine, "book" engineering, "book" 

 architecture, and so on? 



What I have to offer to-day will be along the line of the 

 relation of the utilities and their relation to success or 

 failure. 



The more I look into the actual contact of the farmer with 

 the cow, the more I am astonished at the vast number of 

 men who are living on the ragged edge of the business. But 

 few, comparatively, are intelligent, successful dairymen, fol- 

 lowing intelligent methods, and justified in their course by 

 the best endorsement in the world, — a good profit. There 

 is a vast deal of profound ignorance abroad, and the policy 

 of a great number of farmers in the conduct of their herds is 

 governed more by what they don't know than what they do 

 know. But a still more discouraging feature is their indif- 

 ference to their better education. They have come to this 

 business with too low ideals of what it really means to be a 

 dairyman, what a dairy cow means, what the breeding of her 

 means, or the meaning of her proper feeding and dairy en- 

 vironment. Their fathers got along in the crude old days 

 with little knowledge, and did fairly well ; and they say : 

 " Why should I make any special effort to know any more 

 than they did? Isn't the cow just the same as she was 

 then?" 



