HO ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



Davenport here went out with the scale and the Babcock test and selected 

 <out through that vicinity a small dairy that made an average of 300 pounds 

 •of butter per cow. (If I have given that wrong call me down). I men- 

 tion this to show that it is practicable. There are more cows that will 

 make that record of butter, and we want to become acquainted with them. 

 We want to get rid of the unprofitable cow; let them go to the butcfeer. 

 A poor cow is like the separator we had in one of our creameries. There 

 was very nearly $1,000 invested in it, but it took so much power to run 

 it that we had to get rid of it. Cows will bring something for beef at any 

 time. 



The feeding question with our dairymen is where a great many of 

 .us stumble, stumble terribly, too. The cows must have all they will 

 consume of some palatable, digestible food, and if palatable it is usually 

 digestible. A great many make the mistake of rot letting the cows have 

 all they will consume, that is a fact with us. 



In the dairy section of the nor^th part of this state the farmers are not 

 feeding as well as usual. That is one of the great causes of a falling off in 

 many sections in the milk product. In Chicago this week one of the offi- 

 cers from a railway company there asked me what the cause was of the 

 dropping off in the milk supply. He said they had to hunt and hunt to 

 get dairies to supply their shippers. The parties who get milk over their 

 road have to keep up the supply for the demand for milk and are having 

 a hard time doing it. "The management of the road are getting after 

 me quite sharp; what is the trouble," he said. I told him the foundation 

 lies right here. The farmers will not milk cows unless there is more 

 profit in it than making beef. It is so much more confining. They 

 have to be there morning, noon and night, not excepting Sundays. They 

 want, to make more money or they will not be tied up. That is the effect 

 now of the advance in the price of beef, and the present price is inducing 

 many farmers not to feed as well. 



I was talking with one of my large patrons a short time ago and he 

 said to me: "Mr. Gurler, I have got a lot of cows; I might make a lot 

 more milk, but I have not the courage, the faith, to put my grain through 

 my cows. The price of grain is weakening me and I am keeping grain to 

 sell in place of manufacturing milk." This shows the drift in some parts 



