40 



1. They enable us to weed out the herd, selling the unprofitable 

 members, retaining those that pay dividends, and replacing those 

 sold with money makers. In the absence of such records it is 

 impossible to do this with certainty. 



2. They serve as a tab on the milkers. Where daily weighings 

 are recorded, any variation is noticed and traced to its cause. If 

 a cow is not milked clean the fact is discovered. Poor work is in 

 this way discouraged. A larger product will be secured, and the 

 danger of drying off from imperfect milking will be lessened. 



3. Disorders in cows are more quickly discovered and checked. 

 If a cow goes off her feed her daily record gives the first indication, 

 and at that time serious loss can generally be averted, while if 

 knowledge is delayed until obtained in other ways, serious results 

 are often experienced. 



4. It stimulates both owner and help to increase the product to 

 its limit, to do better this year than was done last year, and it 

 educates both alike in matters of dairy economy. 



5 . It induces business methods in dealing with farms and dairies, 

 places where business methods have been so much ignored. This 

 is the rock over which many farmers break. One might almost 

 say that the greatest drawback to success in all branches of farm- 

 ing is lack of business methods, i.e., regular balancing of accounts 

 with various farm operations. If commercial houses, or manu- 

 facturers or builders were as negligent about the record of receipts 

 and expenses or profit and loss, in their various transactions as are 

 farmers, their better informed competitors would soon drive them 

 to the wall. Even the very small leaks in fuel, postage and other 

 items of expense are most carefully studied and guarded against. 



Co-operation. 

 Another great drawback to successful dairying is the lack of 

 confidence between producers. I have not the time or space to 

 discuss its wherefore but must content myself with the bold state- 

 ment of facts. Farmers will not ivork together. In all other lines 

 of business, co-operation is the rule of the hour, and in it do men 

 find promise of profit. Railroads are fast consolidating, and 

 manufacturers of every sort of product are forming trusts. All 

 lines of business are securing new combines almost daily, and in 

 them do men find relief from the heat of competition. Farmers 

 alone combat each other and play into the hands of their opon- 

 ents. I ha\e known creamery after creamery ruined because its 

 patrons would not support it. Farmers on every hand sign iron- 

 clad contracts with powerful combines, but with each other the 

 most tentative agreements fail to be effective. The proverbial 

 independence of the farmer appears to be his own worst enemy. 



