114 RURAL LIFE IN CANADA 



worker into an alert business man by the introduction 

 of the Babcock test in dairying. Its use revealed to 

 him that he kept a few cows at good profit, and yet 

 more at no profit. He began to apply the same business 

 principle to other things — the feed value of different 

 fodders, for instance. Then accurate records of the 

 daily production of milk by each cow in the herd were 

 begun. Pedigreed stock of the finest strains was pur- 

 chased, and developed with unusual success. Some 

 time ago a stockman visited his barn, examined his 

 records, picked out a score of head, and asked, " What 

 is your figure for these ?" When, after computation, 

 the farmer named his figure, the stockman without a 

 word wrote out a cheque for the amount. The sum 

 was larger than all the stock of every kind upon the 

 farm, together with all the equipment of the farm, 

 together with a fair proportion of the price of the farm 

 itself, had amounted to fifteen years before. What had 

 business methods meant to that farmer ? He had 

 learned to make a livelihood ; but more, he had learned 

 to live. He and every member of his family had found 

 in farming a zest unknown before. It had become an 

 absorbing occupation, and thereby many of the interests 

 of life had been transformed. Those who begin to live 

 in this way do not leave the farm. There are many 

 particulars concerning which there is a clamant cry 

 for the application of better business to farm manage- 

 ment, but in no particular is the need more pressing 

 than in providing some more efficient means of distri- 

 bution of farm products. There exists a small co-opera- 

 tive association of farmers at Spencer ville who ship 

 their eggs under guarantee of freshness, uniformity of 

 size and color, and regularity of supply, and gain from 



