86 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



Mr. Gurler: Now what were the figures you gave in regard to the 

 dairy production? 



A. $254,000,000. 



Q. I don't wish to say you are wrong. You are all right, but the 

 facts in this case are, we have got in the United States seventeen million 

 cows, that is practically correct. The last paper shows this, that ISO 

 pounds of butter to a cow, and that is little enough isn't it- 



Q. Yes sir. 



Q. We put it at 16 cents a pound, that is $20.00 for a cow, and seven- 

 teen million cows, $340,000,000 for butter, and there is nothing taken into 

 account there for the calves raised on skim milk, just butter. Now as I 

 say, I am talking to show the unreasonableness of those figures. That 

 cannot be true, it seems to me improbable. 



Mr. Johnson: Is it a fact that the profit in keeping poultry is largely 

 due to /the fact that chickens eat what nothing else will, and picks up? If 

 you charge the expense of the feed wouldn't you run the chicken to death? 



A. No, 1 think not. I had a hock of White Leghorns hens. I used 

 ten bushels of wheat at 70 cents a bushel, and I sold $22.00 worth of eggs 

 before that wheat was gone. They had nothing besides that. 



Q. You did not sell your eggs in the regular market? 



A. No sir. 



A Member: In regard to that matter of statistics, it is the hardest 

 thing to get at the value of the dairy product of the State of Illinois; in 

 fact, we have to depend largely on the assessor, and there is no way of 

 getting at it. If you ask an assessor how many cows he has? how much 

 butter he has, he says he cannat tell you, and he cannot within two rows 

 of apple trees, but he will tax you. 



Mr. H. B. Gurler: in regard to the amount of skill that is necessary 

 to make a success of the poultry business on the farm. I am thinking con- 

 siderable of making something of the line of work in connection with my 

 dairy in place of hogs, and with the milk I cannot have hogs near my dairy 

 work, for fear of hog cholera. Well now, what do you think a man of 

 ordinary intelligence can I get there to handle the , poultry business. Does 

 it take skill? Is there danger of disease? 



