FORTY-THIRD ANNUAL CONVENTION 23 



Mr. Fielden: I don't propose to go to Stephenson county 

 for cows because they make you pay interest on cows there. 1 

 am going to Waupaca, Wisconsin, where 1 can find cows for 25 

 and 40 per cent less. This is true because Stephenson county 

 has a good market for its cows. I found the same condition iu 

 the central part of the state. I can buy good healthy grade cows 

 at a good deal less money up in Waupaca than I could in a sec- 

 tion where they are doing an intensified dairying. 



Mr. Mason : Not raising our best heifer calves, that is one 

 mistake we have made. In years past we would go into Wis- 

 consin, Minnesota and Iowa and we used to go on a man's farm 

 and pick out what we wanted to buy, but of late years you go 

 onto their farms and they pick out what they want to sell — that 

 is the result of the Cow Testing Associations. 



Mr. Foss : Up to about a year ago the cows would sell up 

 to $75 but the last year, you take the Illinois Central from Free- 

 port to Dodgeville, all the creameries are not manufacturing 

 butter, the milk is pasteurized and shipped to Chicago a train- 

 load a day. We are getting practically just as much for our 

 milk in Stephenson county as Mr. Mason is in Elgin, and that 

 is what has put the price up this last winter, simply because 

 farmers get the price for the milk and they can afford to pay a 

 big price for cow^s, and not only that, there is a good market for 

 milk. Borden's is starting a condensary in our neighborhood 

 and there are the Sw^iss cheese factories. When you get $2.43 

 for milk for the month of October clear, is it any wonder that 

 everybody wants to keep more cows and that evei-ybody buys? 

 Where the market is not what it is in our county, you will find 

 cows cheaper. 



Mr. Gray: 400 pounds of butter at 40 cents the year 

 around is a record. A cow of that character Avill produce a 

 heifer at one-half the price of a mature cow after deducting the 

 cost of raising the heifer. Cottage cheese at 15 cents per pound, 

 it is pretty good paying proposition. I am afraid there are none 

 in this county that make that much, — perhaps one here and there. 



