

ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 31 



suck the cows until they have consumed from one-half to three-fourths of 

 -the milk product. The cow and calf are both spoiled. If a man has ten 

 cows it will be much better to take five of them and treat them as milk 

 cows, feeding and caring for them properly, than to take the ten and let 

 the calves suck the milk until they are half dry. 



Where two or three farmers are so situated that they can keep and raise 

 dairy cows of some established bree d, and keep them pure, it would no 

 doubt be the most profitable. There are very few, if any, cases where it will 

 pay the ordinary farmer to cross breeds. If a farmer has a fairly good herd 

 of milch cows it will often pay him to use a thoroughbred sire of some dairy 

 breed, for the purpose of improving his herd, but when he has started on a 

 certain line, let him keep right on that line. Don't change and experiment 

 in establishing a new breed. To get a fixed type takes several hundred 

 years, and the chances are that we will die before we get the type estab- 

 lished. We can accomplish sometliing by doing our duty in improving the 

 types already established, or at least in maintaining them. 



In the majority of instances there is no improvement made in develop- 

 ing cattle in the hands of the average farmer. This is partly from careless- 

 ness, and partly because the average farmer has not had the education that 

 will train his mind to comprehend conditions, and the reasoning powers 

 necessary to apply the means at his disposal to the best advantage. Most 

 of our successful farmers have gained this education and judgment by expe- 

 rience, and we all know that experience is a hard and expensive teacher. 

 What we need is more drill and discipline among our farmer boys and girls. 

 Not that I think the average farmer boys have any less of it than the aver- 

 age town boy, but that the country boy has less of the contact with other 

 people, and contact with people is beneficial or detrimental, according to 

 the quality of the people, or our own mental strength. 



The successful business men in our towns have generally grown from 

 boyhood under the management of men experienced in the line in which 

 he is engaged. His education has not gone beyond reading, writing, arith- 

 metic, and some knowledge of bookkeeping. His knowledge of buying and 

 selling comes from. experience,and» his success depends almost entirely upon 



