THIRTY-FIFTH ANNUAL CONVENTION. 63 



give some milk. The instincts in her, made by God, will prompt 

 her to take care of her little one. Feed that cow a good generous 

 ration and she will get fleshy. If you have a beef cow in your 

 dairy herd, get rid of her. 



Another one digests her feed and because of something in 

 her temperament, or tendency, insteady of converting that into 

 flesh, she will convert it into milk. That cow is a dairy cow, 

 and it makes no difference what her breed, or, in other words, 

 she may be a Guernsey, Jersey, Holstein, Shorthorn, Polled or 

 Hereford, if she has that temperament to convert that feed into 

 milk, she is a dairy cow. I want to say to you men of Illinois, 

 you better get her. She will do more to enlarge your cash in- 

 come, and maintain the fertility of your soil than any other 

 animal on the farm. 



There is another kind of a cow, which eats and digests her 

 food and God only knows what she does with it. She is of no 

 value to any one. I will illustrate these propositions. I was in 

 a barn in Michigan not long ago and stood behind a row of 

 cows. The owner weighed the milk from every cow twice a day, 

 tested once a week, weighed the feed and knew just what it cost 

 him to keep each cow, and what she paid for her keep. He 

 pointed out two cows and asked me how much difference there 

 was in the profit from those two cows. I told him I didn't know. 

 I can't tell from the looks of a cow, so I made a guess the right 

 hand cow was the better cow. The right hand cow gave ten 

 times the profit the left hand cow did. What does that mean? 

 Just suppose Mason and myself had farms along side by side. 

 He had cows like the right hand cow, and I had cows like the 

 left hand cow. Mr. Mason would have ten times as much profit 

 in a year as T would have. Not only that, it means that for nine 

 years yet I must grow crops, feed those cows and milk them, 

 and after ten years I would have no more than my friend would 

 have in one year. I must put in ten years of my life to accom- 

 plish what he had accomplished in one year. Why? Because 

 he had better cows. I maintain as farmers and dairymen, we are 

 putting in two, three, four, ten years to accomplish what we 



