120 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



CHEAP PRODUCTION OF MILK, 



PROF. E. FARRINGTON, MADISON, WIS. 



My memory of the discussion we had at a farmer. s meeting in this 

 City some six years ago is a very pleasant one ,and as I have attended a 

 greater number of the annual meetings of the Illinois State Dairymen's 

 Association than any other similar organization, I was pleased to receive 

 an invitation to come this year, especially so, when informed that the meet- 

 ing was to be held at Galesburg. 



The subject which has been assigned to me to speak upon today will 

 not probably excite so lively a discussion as one remark I happened to 

 make at the meeting during my former visit here. Very few if any of 

 those present at that time seemed willing to accept the statement that 

 rich feed does not increase the richness of a cow's milk. This assertion, 

 although it is not of so much importance to the dairyman as is the question 

 of producing milk cheaply aroused considerable opposition and a lively 

 discussion. 



No argument is necessary to convince a dairyman that he ought to 

 think and ac on the question of reducing to its lowest terms the cost of 

 producing a quart of milk, but nearly every one who has milked cows for 

 & living will take exception to the statement that he cannot "feed fat 

 into the milk." This and some questions like the cause of low prices are 

 talked about a great deal without much effect. Economical milk produc- 

 tion is however the supreme question for a dairyman to consider, and 

 Ms time is much more profitably spent in studying this problem than in 

 making continual complaint about market prices. 



Like almost everything else that is bought and sold, the price of but- 

 ier is influenced by supply and demand. If each one of us should stop 

 to consider that this is a large country, and that the annual butter crop 

 is estimated to be one billion four hundred' million pounds, he would soon 



