66 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



profit that we get out of those cows. There is no question about 

 this. The man who makes the chief end of life getting dollars 

 makes mistakes. But when he sets out to make a success of his 

 business for the purpose of accumulating something that he may 

 provide himself and family with the comforts of life, educate his 

 children and provide against old age, he owes it to himeelf to get 

 just as large profits as possible. We want our cows to take their 

 food and convert it into the most possible amount of dairy pro- 

 ducts. How are we to know? Shall we select a spotted cow, 

 or some other color? No. Color makes no difference. It is 

 the cow that will take her feed and convert it into the most prod- 

 uct. How are we to know? Shall she have sloping shoulders, 

 large udder, good milk veins and all that? Yes. But then I 

 want to know something more about her. The cow is a piece of 

 machinery to take our food and convert it into a product. We 

 have learned something about the confirmation of that machine 

 that indicates its temperament. But outward conformation may 

 be right, and something wrong with the inner works.. Occas- 

 ionally we find that some of these cows have the right confirma- 

 tion, and not the ability. Go a little farther. Its like the horse. 

 When the man was looking for the fastest horse, he picked out 

 Dan Patch because he was built right. How fast could he go 

 was asked. You could not tell. But there is one way you can 

 tell. Get up behind that horse and drive it. That's common 

 ordinary horse sense. Apply the same sense to this proposition 

 of the dairy cow. 



In the matter of production. When you feed that cow, know 

 what she is paying you for it. The common ordinary dairyman 

 can be his own clerk, you don't need a bookkeeper, that is all non- 

 sense. I never had a bookkeper and never spent such a great 

 lot of time with a pencil. What time I have spent has paid me 

 best in the dairy proposition. We do not have to be like Prof. 

 Fraser of your university when he makes an experiment. He has 

 to show you people just exactly, but you and I on the ordinary 

 farms have not got to know to the fraction of a cent. Once in 



