ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 35 



but each one can contribute his efforts toward raising the quality 

 of the output of his creamery or factory and profit thereby. 



Second : To keep down the cost of production we must have 

 better breeding and better feeding". Buy a hand Babcock testing 

 outfit for $5.00 and test every cow in the herd. You can't afford 

 not to do it. Weigh the milk from each cow and keep her 

 record, for unless you do, in 99 cases out of 100 you will be 

 unable to tell which are profitable cows and which are not profita- 

 ble. Guessing at the amount is keeping thousands of dairymen 

 poor. Scales in the dairy barn are as essential as a range in the 

 kitchen. Use a pure-bred sire and build the herd with the heifers 

 from the best cows. In a community where milk is being pro- 

 duced nothing but a pure-bred dairy sire should be used. The 

 failure of the American dairyman to stick to a dairy sire of the 

 same breed accounts for the present inferior condition of the 

 dairy herds. Dairy cows must be carefully fed. Provide green 

 crops other than pasture for summer and keep the cows out of 

 the heat and away from the flies. Grow leguminous crops and 

 thus cut down the amount of costly concentrates necessary to 

 balance up the ration. Provide warm stables for expensive food 

 is wasted when cattle rustle through the cold stalk fields. The 

 c< <rn stover that goes to waste in our fields every winter ought to 

 be in a silo, or shredded and stored away in the barn to be fed 

 where the animals are comfortable. 



DISCUSSION. 



Prof. Smith: — Mr. President, I would like to ask Mr. Hop- 

 per if he had observed any feeding of soja bean hay or silage in 

 Southern Illinois? 



Mr. Hopper: — I have not. 



Mr. Smith: — Have you observed the fact that Wisconsin 

 has recognized in a little bulletin the fact that the feeding of 

 such silage is not to be recommended for a dairy herd? 



Mr. Hopper: — No sir. I have not. 



Mr. Smith: — If the gentlemen will excuse we, Wisconsin 

 to the front. They have stolen some of our preserves in the soil 



