ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 179 



the scales and the Babcock test can answer the question. As long as 

 these differences of 25 per cent or even 10 per cent exist between cows 

 that are accounted acceptable, just so long will some be eating the heads 

 off others and just so long will the question of profit depend upon the ma- 

 chine that is effecting the transformation of feed into milk and butter. 



I know I will be met with the statement that the cow will yieil 

 more milk if she be not bred. So she will. But while that is true of an 

 individual it yet remains true that the only way to get milk is for some- 

 body to breed cows and the only way to get good cows is for the man most 

 interested to produce them himself, particularly when he has all the out- 

 fit except the sire. 



The dairyman, of all feeders, must not forget that the bulk of his food 

 goes to support the animal body and that it is a good one that returns 

 to him more than one-eighth or one-tenth of what she consumes. It is 

 therefore to his advantage to put his food through the fewest possible 

 number of animals in order that the expense of simple support should 

 be reduced to a minimum. 



Again, the dairyman must remember that feed is never so profitable 

 as when put into young animals and that the raising of a calf until it 

 becomes a cow is not so serious a matter as it seems, and that 

 it costs vastly less than to buy as good a cow as can be raised. 

 But the dairyman says that he does not like to keep a bull nor 

 to raise calves. Now we are getting at the truth. The whole thing 

 is principally a matter of preference, but we pay too dearly and cows suffer 

 too seriously for the luxury of not being troubled with thejob of raising 

 them. I do not like the method that nature has settled upon for getting 

 milk from the cow. It answers well enough for a calf, but I would rather 

 turn a faucet and let it run out. I cannot consult my tastes in this mat- 

 ter, however, and if I keep cows I must milk them. 



So in the matter of breeding cows; it is not a question of preference, 

 but of necessity. If the dairyman does not breed them nobody else will 

 breed them. Yet some dairymen are shrewd enough to see the point and 



