Thirty-fourth Annual Convention. ^^^ 



know how to get the most out of them. There is where addi- 

 tional knowledge is required of a dairyman as compared with any 

 other branch of agriculture. There is more technical knowledge 

 required to be a good dairyman than is required of a business 

 man in town. Dairying is a business, and if we expect to get 

 the most out of it, we must put business principles back of it. 

 The dairyman is a manufacturer. He takes the raw material 

 grown upon his farm, and which has a certain market value, feeds 

 it to his cows, and produces a marketable product-milk. 



A successful manufacturer must have his business founded 

 on certain business principles. One of these is that the price 

 at which he sells the article he manufactures must bear a certain 

 relation to the cost of manufacture. It must provide for a 

 profit, for he has capital invested and he has a factory to keep 

 in repair. For instance, a manufacturer of shoes if you please, 

 who gets an order for a lot of shoes at the fixed price. of $3.00 

 a pair, knows that the cost of manufacture must be less than 

 $3.00 if he makes any profit. He will go to work and try to 

 reduce the cost by buying his raw material cheaper if he can, or 

 try to make shoes out the same raw material, he will put in better 

 machinery, or labor saving machinery and keep a check on all 

 leaks and wastes in the factory and use every effort to produce 

 his shoes as cheaply as possible. 



The same principles hold true in successful dairying. If 

 we expect to make any money out of dairying, we must produce 

 a pound of butter or one hundred pounds of milk for less money 

 than we sell it for. That is the practical side of dairying. 



Much has been said about sentiment and dairying, and it has 

 been truly said. Sentiment is the very foundation of dairying. 

 Milk is produced by the cow, not for the purpose of enriching 

 the dairyman, but for the purpose of nourishing her young. 

 Man is simply taking advantage of the all powerful impulse of 

 motherhood, and he is doing it for financial gain, and I wish to 

 speak about that side of it, the practical, financial side of dairy- 

 ing. 



I repeat, the dairyman is a manufacturer, but do we dairymen 

 know how much it costs us to produce a hundred pounds of milk 

 or a pound of butter ? I confess I am not familiar with your 

 dairy business here in Illinois, but during the last few years 

 I have been in touch with dairying in Michigan, and have had 



