ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 173 



quite regularly on that man's farm. He only needed an object 

 lesson to teach him that it would pay to hire help to haul manure, 

 even on to that fertile prairie soil. One half (eighty acres) of 

 our present farm had been rented and cropped, and pretty well 

 seeded with cockleburrs. I was at that time renting that land, 

 and by the time we had those burrs thoroughly subdued this 

 good neighbor had made a perceptible showing with his. We 

 all know that it is less work to raise an acre of corn that will 

 yield seventy-five bushels than one that will produce only twenty, 

 five bushels; so aside from ''cribbing " the crop, we have fifty 

 bushels to the acre that has really cost less than nothing to raise. 

 If a man can afford to raise the lesser crop for thirty cents per 

 bushel he can better afford to raise the larger crop at ten cents 

 per bushel. One had better pay $12.00 rent for the use of the 

 land producing seventy-five bushels than $4.00 for the twenty- 

 five bushels. The same rule holds good, in a great measure, in 

 estimating the real value of the land itself. The benefit to the 

 land used for dairy purposes will go a long way towards paying 

 the expenses necessarily attached to the dairy business. I be- 

 lieve with the introduction of the silo, in connection with dairy 

 farming, that most land could in a few years, be made to carry 

 more than double the amount of stock formerly kept. 



Second. — I believe it to be a fact that for the last twenty 

 years with the average man dairy farming in this state, when 

 rightly managed, has been second to no other branch of that 

 business, either in magnitude or profit; but it is also a fact that a 

 large per cent of the butter made in this state has been made at a 

 dead loss, owing to its inferior value when put upon the market. 

 To make dairying most profitable one must learn the business 

 *' from knuckle to thumb, " by his own experience and observa- 

 tion, and a close study of the experiences of other people who 

 have made that business a success by reading the best dairy 

 books and papers, using his own best judgment and discretion 

 in applying their teaching to the necessities of his own particular 

 business. It may take much reading to learn a little, but that 

 little may be worth much to us. 



Third. — The products of the farm can more quickly be 



