THIRTY-FIFTH ANNUAL CONVENTION. 83 



to you, that there is not a branch of agriculture today that will 

 return you as much for intelligent work as will the dairy industry 

 and the measure of your success in the industry will depend upon 

 the amount of intelligence you put into it. The possibilities of 

 the dairy cow are almost boundless and the amount of money that 

 can be made out of dairying, if it is conducted in an intelligent 

 manner so far as breeding and feeding are concerned is almost 

 limitless. 



To illustrate this, according to the report of State Dairy 

 Commissioner Wright of Iowa the cows of the state only return 

 about 150 pounds to the cow. Now at the price of feed, it is an 

 easy matter to figure out that there is not a dollar of profit in 

 keeping cows of this kind. Compare the cows of Iowa with that 

 wonderful cow from Wisconsin "Colantha's Fourth Johanna," 

 that was on exhibition at the National Dairy Show in Chicago, 

 that gave in one year 998 pounds of butterfat. Think of the dif- 

 ference between 150 and 998 pounds. I give you this simply to 

 illustrate the possibilities of the dairy cow. While it may not 

 be possible for all of us to produce cows like this, there are any 

 number of farmers today who have herds of cows, that are pro- 

 ducing 200, 300 and even 400 pounds to the cow and if it is pos- 

 sible for one man to do this, it is possible for another to do the 

 same thing. 



Now this is not the only reason. Mr. Newman in his ad- 

 dress hit upon a very vital point when he referred to the conserv- 

 ing of the fertility of your soil, and this is a subject which I be- 

 lieve is of the greatest importance to you at the present time. I 

 take it that you are largely grain raisers and that you are selling 

 this product from your farm. Now did it ever occur to you, that 

 you can not always continue to do this. Did you ever sit down 

 and reason and think what you were doing when you were sell- 

 ing the grain from your farm? Did it ever occur to you that 

 some time you have got to put this fertility back in some shape? 

 Is it not good common sense to know that you cannot sell wheat, 

 oats, corn and hay and still keep that land of yours productive? 

 Do you know that every time you sell a ton of wheat you dispose 



