330 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



System No. 4 is the most likely to meet the requirements of 

 the dairyman with a small amount of productive land who wishes 

 to practice intensive methods. Where the land is high-priced 

 and sufficient help can be obtained, this system will prove the 

 most remunerative if intelligently pursued. On a quarter sec- 

 tion of land 84 cows can be kept just as well as 32 cows and yet 

 have all their feed produced on the farm. It simply depends on 

 whether System No. 1 or No. 4 is used to produce the feed. 



Increased returns Basis of Increased Profits. 



The small profit shown for System No. 1 means that after 

 all labor is paid for at market prices and the incidental expenses 

 figured as offset by the income from garden, orchard, etc., there 

 is left for profit but $2.43. This means that the dairyman is 

 just able to make a living by this system and the extras of life 

 must come from the labor returns of the women and children, 

 who receive no remuneration whatever. There are dairy farms 

 in Illinois conducted in this manner that do not pay 5 per cent 

 interest on the investment. And this is not all ; the farm is con- 

 tinually running down in producing power so that smaller and 

 smaller yields are obtained year after year, making this deplor- 

 able condition grow gradually worse. System No. 2 has $780 

 profit, System No. 3 $1,947, and System No. 4 $3,928 profit 

 above interest on the investment and pay for labor, including 

 the proprietor's labor at common wages. If, as is likely to be 

 done on more intelligently conducted farms, better methods of 

 breeding were instituted under Systems Nos. 3 and 4, so as to 

 increase the efficiency of the cows, there would be a much larger 

 difference in the total returns than here indicated. 



Increased Profits Not In Money Value Alone. 



It should also be noted that while System No. 1 reduces the 

 nitrogen in the soil 1900 pounds per year and exhausts the 

 humus, the other three systems increase the nitrogen no, 2280 

 and 5830 pounds respectively, per year, besides increasing the 

 humus. As nitrogen and humus, because of their scarcity, are 



