54 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



our COWS are giving, and to pay them back in good nutritive 

 feeds, as it is for you and I to go into a store and ask for 

 something and lay the money down and pay for it as we 

 go out. 



Sometimes I get rather, oh, not fussy, but sometimes 

 I get rather out of patience with our cow testing association 

 work. It is the finest thing that ever was, one of the big- 

 gest things that ever was, that ever struck the American 

 farmer, but, gentlemen, we can do it ourselves if we have 

 got the will power. We ought to know the value of every 

 cow that stands in our stalls, and until we do do it we are 

 not going into successful dairying, but whenever we can 

 feed our cows in proportion to what they are giving us, and 

 know what they are giving, and know the butter fat test, 

 we are working on a basis that will enable us to become 

 successful dairymen. It is a mighty fine thing for you and 

 I to be able to run our own business, but the minute our 

 business begins to run us we have got our nose to the grind- 

 stone, and if we are going to run our business in so far as 

 we know the game, and whenever we don't know the game 

 things soon get the upper hand of us, so with my Jerseys 

 I feed one pound of this mixture to every two to two and 

 one-half pounds of milk which they produce for me; and 

 of course you understand with the alfalfa hay and soy 

 bean hay my cattle get alfalfa hay at night and soy bean 

 hay in the morning — no, I take it just the other way around, 

 they get soy bean hay at night. I have my man kick it 

 around to the mules and our horses, and they get their 

 alfalfa hay in the morning so they can eat it and good days 

 they get out and get some fresh air and things of that sort, 

 but my cattle get the legume hay through and through. 



We raise redtop in our section of the country, but as 

 Dr. Hopkins has said to me, what are we going to raise in 

 southern Illinois when we can't raise redtop? We can 

 raise legumes if we will to a great extent. You can raise 

 very manj^ cowpeas in this section of the state. We do in 

 southern Illinois, but the legume is the one thing we have 

 got to do, and I cannot understand how a man can be a 

 dairyman who does not grow a legume or feed it, and if 



