No. 4.] DAIRYING. 67 



EDUCATION OF THE DAIRYMAN AND THE DAIRY 



COW. 



BY PROP. H. E. COOK, DEAN AND PROFESSOR OF ANIMAL HUSBANDRY 

 OP ST. LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY, CANTON, N. Y. 



I had a plan laid out for this address, hut I am going to 

 change it. I wished to discuss with you at considerable 

 length the organization side of our dairy business, but Dean 

 Davenport yesterday gave a very important lecture on that 

 line. I never heard a better address on the organization 

 of the farm business. It is my opinion that on this the 

 future success of agriculture depends, the fundamental prin- 

 ciples set forth in his address, and I wish that you could have 

 all heard it. 



Just a word about dairy organization. I think it is the 

 most poorly organized business that I know anything about 

 in this country, and it is safe to say that most milkmen will 

 agree with me. I sj^eak from the standpoint of the milk pro- 

 ducer. When I was eighteen years old I commenced making 

 butter and cheese, and for twelve years I did not go outside 

 a cheese factory or creamery except to take some part in the 

 management of a farm. I have been interested in cows ever 

 since, and I think I know something about the hard side of 

 the dairy business. 



Most men will agree that if all the expenses incident to the 

 production of milk were charged against the business, — 

 all expenses of labor, interest on the investment, cows and 

 food, and losses in the dairy, no inconsiderable item, — nine 

 dairies out of ten would be found insolvent. There is a reason 

 for this, which I wish to discuss for a few minutes, and my 

 opinion is the result of a great deal of study and care. The 

 soils of the country, with a few exceptions, have become im- 

 poverished by continuous use without fertilization, so that 



