148 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



over two million cows, so that at the present time we are 

 four million cows behind what we were six years ago, 

 from the standpoint of cows per capita of population, and 

 we are not now increasing very rapidly in cows. 



I spoke a week ago yesterday at Hartford, Connecti- 

 cut, to the Connecticut State Dairy Convention, and I wish 

 you people could have been there. Conditions there are 

 much more exacting than here, where farmers buy corn 

 and oats and protein feeds. They ship feed half way 

 across the nation, and it is a problem how to make money, 

 and they have figured their problem down to where they 

 do not believe they can aiford to raise calves. I think they 

 are wrong because they are already buying good grade 

 cows in all of the eastern states and paying from one hun- 

 dred dollars up. They cannot buy a good grade cow short 

 of one hundred dollars and in some sections, especially 

 good grade cows are selling for one hundred and twenty- 

 five dollars to one hundred and fifty dollars, some of them 

 one hundred and seventy-five dollars. It looks to me that 

 one of the very best businesses we could have in this coun- 

 try is to do as they are doing up in Wisconsin — raise good 

 cows for the people down east. 



In the convention hall was a big sign, ''Connecticut 

 imports 12,000 cows a year." All the eastern states are 

 doing likewise, and so when I say to you that we are four 

 million cows behind right now, in the United States, and 

 that we are increasing to the extent that we need three 

 hundred and seventy-five thousand cows a year, you can 

 see we are going to have to do something before we begin 

 catching up with our quota. 



I think the next problem we are going to have in this 

 country is lack of milk supply. As was brought out here 

 yesterday, when we get to the point where the demand 

 exceeds the supply sufficiently, then we will have a con- 

 dition where oleo creeps in to take the place of our but- 

 ter. That is really a danger which confronts the industry. 



In addition to that, already we are facing foreign but- 

 ter leaping over our tariff wall to supply the butter which 

 we are not producing for ourselves; and I would deviate 



