76 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



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 products are set on the basis of efficient production, mean- 

 ing that the efficient farmer is going to prosper, that the law 

 of the survival of the fittest is in effect on the farm today- 

 even as it has been in effect in other lines of industry for so 

 long. 



You can remember very well when it was the belief, 

 if you please, that the boy of the family who was thought 

 to be the most intelligent was made into a lawyer or doctor 

 some way, while the boy who, it was believed, could not 

 succeed elsewhere, was sent out to the farm to become a 

 farmer. I doubt if there is any class of business that re- 

 quires more study and more managerial effort than this 

 business of farming. 



I think you know the point I am trying to make. It is 

 simply this : that we must in some way or other come to the 

 realization that making excuses as to why we do not do 

 these little things that are so necessary will not bring suc- 

 cess. The only thing that will bring it is results — results 

 that are large, economical and profitable. 



All farmers, east, west, north and south, do the big 

 things. I know of no farmer who ever failed to have time 

 to plow his land, plant seeds and cultivate the soil, harvest, 

 etc., but I know thousands of farmers who do not have time, 

 if you please, to lime the soil, to test the seeds, to test their 

 cows and keep track of their efforts in that business-like 

 way which is so necessary in the determining of costs and 

 profits. And that is why it so often occurs to. me that these 

 meetings fail to get results, because it is so difficult to do 

 in addition to the big things those little things that mean 

 so much. 



The cow testing association has been suggested here 

 and there are very few things more important than that. 

 Why is it we are not all in cow testing associations? It is 

 not because the cost is so great, as it is very easily proved 

 that it brings in dollars while it costs cents. It is just one 

 of those little things we feel we can get along without. 



If you will pardon a personal reference, I feel that to- 

 day I have fed and cared for my cows, that I am getting as 

 much production as though I were at home — that simply 



