ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 33 



is confining work, and there is some of it done on every farm. If you only 

 have one cow, you must milk her every morning and evening, and the fact 

 of having several to milk, instead of one, cuts a very little figure. 



At one time I was ambitious to have 100 head of milch cows on my farm: 

 of 160 acres. I actually wintered 100 head of cows and heifers one year, and 

 sixty of them were giving milk. I found that I had too many. A large 

 herd will not do as well as a small one. Another condition is that if you 

 have the required number of milkers, and are obliged to pay them for a full 

 day's work, and can only give them work at milking time, you are losing 

 money. 



If you have say fifteen cows for each milker, which is all anyone should 

 milk, and one of your milkers .fails to put in an appearance, it leaves too 

 many for your other milkers, and the work is not properly done. I do not 

 know how it may be in other lines of business, but on a iarm two men will 

 not do twice as much work as one, nor will four men do twice as much as 

 two. If the average farmer keeps more cows than can be conveniently cared 

 for by his ordinary help, they will be so much of a care that they will be 

 neglected. 



Ten average cows with good care should produce $400 or $450 worth of 

 butter in a year after paying for the making. When we add to this the skim 

 milk and ten calves, we will have as much as the corn and oats are worth. 

 With all of our domestic animals a small herd will always produce a larger 

 per cent of profit. A herd of ten hogs or sheep will do better than a herd of 

 fifty or 100. 



The hired help is a serious question, especially on a dairy farm. If the 

 clerks in a store, or hands in a factory quit work, the loss is practically lim- 

 ited to the time the store is closed or the factory stepped. In a town there is 

 an opportunity to get help through an emergency. But on a dairy farm the 

 loss extends beyond the time really lost. If a cow is allowed to go over a 

 milking or two, the probability is that she is injured during the entire milk- 

 ing season, or perhaps for life. The neighbors are not near enough to be 

 called in for an emergency of this kind, and the milking comes at an hour 

 when all farmers are busy. I think it is more difficult to employ men to milk 



