THIRTY-FIFTH ANNUAL CONVENTION. 35 



I just want to call your attention to the soil fertility and 

 feed. The president has given me a little more time, and I would 

 like to talk a little more on the feeding problem. Composition 

 is a very important thing in feeding, but not the all important 

 thing. The man that feeds the cow has just as much to do, and 

 I want to leave three things with you that will regulate the feed- 

 ing problem. First, feed the cow what she likes. Feed her 

 according to her production, and for digestibility. See that it 

 is properly secreted and no indigestion. Mix good common 

 sense with it all and you have the feeding problem solved. We 

 must feed protein because it is absolutely necessary that we feed 

 a certain amount of protein in order to get a certain amount of 

 protein in milk. You can get the protein from any other source, 

 except through the feed. But feed that cow just as she likes and 

 what she wants. Don't feed her corn entirely, or straw or corn 

 stover. That is no feed for a dairy cow. Feed her legitimately 

 and she will respond, and then you will have, if you feed her 

 right good fertilizer to put on your soil. You cannot feed a 

 beef cow and make as good fertility as you can feed a good dairy 

 cow with concentrates that contain a high per cent of protein. 

 Bear these things in mind, and don't accuse your sons and daugh- 

 ters for not making as much money from the farms that you have 

 left them as you have made, because you have robbed the fertility 

 from the soil. Think of all this, for if you do not you will be 

 something like the boy that had to drive the cows to pasture 

 every morning, and one morning the cow broke into the steer 

 part, and there was a calf, and this calf got mixed up with the 

 steers, and in his attempt to drive the steers from the cows, one 

 of the steers got out of the pasture and the little calf followed 

 the steer down the road thinking it was its mother. The boy 

 started out to head off the steer ,but he didn't succeed, so he tried 

 to get the calf and he didn't succeed. He stopped and he hol- 

 lored, "You will find out what kind of a cow you are with when 

 sucking time comes." That is the proposition you will be up 

 against if you do not provide for it. I do not mean to say you 

 should go into this business extensively. Try it and go into it 

 gradually. I don't ask you to buy pure bred or expensive ani- 



