FORTY-FIRST ANNUAL CONVENTION 137 



Let us take for granted that it costs $29 a year to feed the 

 first cow and that her butter sells for 30 cents a pound, yielding 

 a gross income for her owner of $30. Figure the net profit and 

 it is not difficult to ascertain that this cow has made for her 

 owner $1 net profit, after allowing the skim milk, calf and fer- 

 tilizing ingredients of the offal to pay for the labor expended 

 upon her. In other words, the dairyman or farmer has con- 

 tented himself with milking a cow over 700 times for a net 

 profit of $1. 



We, as farmers and dairymen, are prone to complain about 

 the drudgery on the dairy farm and about the scarcity and high 

 price of farm labor. Still the proprietor of a farm, one of the 

 greatest factories of the United States, is willing to sit under a 

 cow night and morning over 700 times a year and milk her for 

 the meager profit of $1. 



Consider her stable companion, however, that has made 400 

 pounds of butter which, when sold at 30 cents per pound, will 

 return $120 — she may be fed $60 worth of feed and still return 

 a net profit of $60 for her owner. It means that this cow, mak- 

 ing 60 times as much profit as the other cow, is worth at least 

 a whole herd, numbering 60, of the less productive type. 



This is the condition that faces the American farmer and 

 dairyman today. He, and he alone, can by intelligent methods 

 so select and care for his cows as to make them all return him 

 a large percentage of profit. 



On the other hand, we realize that your farms are your 

 farms and your cows are your cows, and you are at liberty to 

 do as you like. You can milk one cow for a year and make a 

 net profit of $60, or you can milk 60 cows for the same period 

 of time in order to make the same amount of profit. In other 

 words, you can milk one cow one year to make a profit of $60, 

 or you can milk the same kind of an old cow 60 years in order 

 to make the same $60 of profit. 



However, we know the American farmer well enough to 

 be certain that he will not knowingly milk a whole herd of cows 

 to make the profit which one cow should make, and those who 

 are willing to take time to weigh and test each individual cow's 



