THE CASE TO-DAY 53 



tractor's. For years station men have been collecting data 

 on dairying. They know, as no one else does, that the 

 modern dairy farmer has large sums of money invested in 

 his business and that he must be a highly trained man in 

 order to succeed. They appreciate fully that the profits in 

 dairying are not easy and that only careful management can 

 reap them. Consequently, the stations have labored zeal- 

 ously to get dairymen to adopt economical rations, to weed 

 out non-productive or robber cows, to pay attention to 

 breeding, and to be biologically clean, so that the products 

 may be wholesome and of good flavor. . . . They know 

 that dairying must pay a reasonable profit to be sound, 

 hence the stations have tried to make the dairymen efficient 

 and have protested when regulations have been proposed 

 that sounded good and entailed expense, but yielded no 

 adequate benefit. The work of the stations will grow in 

 importance, for at present it is the hope of improving farm 

 conditions that holds out the brightest prospect for a solution 

 of the milk question. 6 



One cannot expect that farmers will become agricul- 

 tural experts overnight. Nevertheless, efficient farm 

 management has a prime part to play in solving the 

 milk problem, and there is substantial truth in the fore- 

 going estimate of the role of agricultural authorities. 

 Farming is not yet, for the many, a technological 

 calling, but it is a trade demanding knowledge of 

 scientific and business principles. It may be that 

 agriculture will of economic necessity follow the mod- 

 ern trend and become as specialized as manufac- 

 turing. But that is, for the present, a development 

 which interests only the comparatively few of special 

 training and enterprise. Meanwhile the ordinary 

 farmer must make the progress that is within his 



