138 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



milk to determine the relative merits of his cows can readily sort 

 out and retain only the profitable cows for their future herds. 



As farmers we should realize that in reality the farmer is 

 a manufacturer. Our farms are the greatest manufacturing 

 plants in the world, and every animal that we have on them, no 

 matter what else it may be, is a machine placed there for the 

 purpose of manufacturing finished products out of the raw ma- 

 terials, the grains and grasses grown in the fields. And I say 

 to you that the farmers of the United States will never reach 

 their highest plane of dignity until they realize their position.^} 

 in commercialism as manufacturers. 



It is a well known fact that greater percentages of profit 

 can be made from raw materials by using efficient machines, 

 those that are durable and capacious, than machines that are 

 out of date and wasteful. When we will accept the highest 

 type of present day machines for the manufacture of milk and 

 butter fat and then give them the proper care and treatment 

 which is due them, we will have solved the problem of great 

 and economic production. We will thereby gain in both quantity 

 and quality of production, and by so doing will have demon- 

 strated that our farms are the greatest factories on earth. 



You say to me if we all had good cows there would be no 

 market for the butter. However, I am confident in our lives we 

 will never see the time when there will not be a demand for all 

 the good milk and butter that can be produced. 



Thirty-five years ago there were being milked in the United 

 States 11,000,000 cows. Today there are 22,000,000. During 

 this thirty-five years our population has doubled and in the next 

 thirty-five years we can expect our population to double again. 

 In case it does, one of two things will be necessary if the people 

 of this country are to use dairy products to the same extent per 

 capita as they are now. It will be necessary either to milk 

 twice the number of cows, or to double the average production. 

 Milking twice as many cows, or 44,000,000, would add greatly 

 to the drudgery, for it will take more labor and much more 

 feed. All things considered, the best solution is to milk the same 

 number of cows and by the use of better methods in caring for 



