16 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



going to be an efficient thing for you. It is going to yield 

 you well. But if you look upon organizations as a means of 

 getting a group of men and women together so that by be- 

 ing organized you can lift yourselves out of the mire, you 

 are kidding yourselves. It can't be done! You'll have to 

 apply practical and efficient methods to your business. Get 

 your hogs on a little more profitable basis, take your dairy 

 cattle and put them on a profitable basis, get your 100 or 

 200 hens on a profitable basis, employ efficient methods in 

 the various branches of your work, and then, and in that 

 way only, do I believe it is possible for the farmer to lift 

 himself financially. 



There may be some great legislative opportunities ly- 

 ing open that will be taken advantage of to improve the ag- 

 ricultural class. It would be desirable for such a thing, but 

 there are other ways of bringing this about. It is a general 

 consensus of opinion, and we can find it quite conclusively 

 demonstrated by thousands in this state and other states, 

 that the farmer who follows the policy of breeding his dairy 

 herd carefully, culling and housing flocks, hogs, beef cattle 

 and horses so that they are a little better than the other 

 fellow's, that farmer is usually progressing very nicely. He 

 is about as satisfied as in any other type of business. Is not 

 that class of farmers over the United States generally pros- 

 perous? 



The dairy cow is one of the most substantial types of 

 farm animals that you can use, and the dairy business in 

 general is a prosperous business. I live in Northern Illinois, 

 up where we have lots of dairying. There are a lot of 

 kickers there, as many as in any other section of the coun- 

 try. You can go into the best dairy country in the United 

 States and you will find some of the poorest dairymen that 

 live. But the average fellow is pretty well satisfied. There 

 is not a day passes that there is not from one to five in my 

 office. I talk to them and see their feed and labor bills 

 and those fellows who are careful and go into cow testing 

 associations recognize that there is a difference between 

 cows and the great improvement brought about by the use 

 of a p«ic uiea Dull. They house their animals well, under- 



