THIRTY-FIFTH ANNUAL CONVENTION. 37 



POSSIBILITIES IN MILK PRODUCTION PER ACRE. 



By 

 Prof. W. J. Fraser, University of Illinois. 



People have long- been studying markets and competition 

 from other countries. Farmers have been seeking cheaper lands 

 in less congenial locations, climates and surroundings, and suf- 

 fering the privations of pioneer life in a new country and depriv- 

 ing themselves and their families of the rights of a developed 

 civilization. All of these have been much discussed in public 

 speech and print, while the real economic agricultural problems 

 and possibilities right at our feet have been overlooked. The 

 problem for the people of Illinois is "How to develop their own 

 agricultural possibilities," 



Since agriculture is such a broad and comprehensive sub- 

 ject, and has so many different phases, there is a tendency to go 

 off on a side line and lose sight of the fundamental principle on 

 which all agricultrue is based, namely, "How much of a given 

 product can be permanently obtained from an acre of land, and 

 at what profit?" From this fundamental, basil standpoint, the 

 dairyman's problem is "How much butter fat can be obtained 

 from an acre of land, and at what gain?" 



We constantly receive letters of inquiry in regard to the 

 relative value of different feeds for dairy cows, at certain prices, 

 such as the comparative value of oil meal and cotton seed meal, 

 oats and bran, etc. There is also much discussion and much 

 money spent in determining, or attempting to determine, in an 

 experimental way, the relative feeding value of these different 

 feeds. This information is of value in a general way, but so 

 much energy and thought have been devoted to it that it has 

 come to be considered one of the uppermost questions in milk 

 production, while the larger and more significant questions which 

 dairymen need most to know have been concealed by this dis- 

 cussion and these really minor questions have almost entirely 

 hidden the more vital ones. These are "The amount of digesti- 



