FORTY-THIRD ANNUAL CONVENTION 121 



states — we will have to leave Wisconsin out of the considera- 

 tion this afternoon, because they have gotten past us — (laugh- 

 ter) — we find that there are men striving to get into the dairy 

 business because they realize that the cow is the most economical 

 producer of food for mankind. It returns to the farm in addi- 

 tion to direct profits, the richness and fertility which we are com- 

 pelled to preserve if our farms are going to remain as they are. 

 We realize that we must begin encouraging dairying on our 

 farms. Naturally we have fallen heir to a number of cows that 

 we cannot consider profitable, especially under present condi- 

 tions where farmland is high, labor expensive and feeds at a 

 high price. At the present time we have 22 millions of cows- 

 in the United States. We have fallen heir to these, a large per- 

 centage of which have been used in the past for beef production. 

 Statistics show us that one-third of them are profitable, pay 

 for their keep, and the other two-thirds are a loss. I say to you, 

 however, that if the two-thirds were stricken from the United 

 States it would be a calamity. Then the first step towards pro- 

 fitable dairying is a good sire. There is not a man within the 

 hearing of my voice so poverty stricken in this great, rich, fertile 

 Vermillion county who dares admit to his neighbor that he can- 

 not afford to buy a purebred sire, and if he does make such an 

 assertion, I would say to him that it is absolutely worthless and 

 useless for him to make the attempt to build a profitable dairy 

 herd — he had better go ahead w^ith some other kind of agricul- 

 ture and if he fails he will have to do as thousands of others? 

 have done, go to the city and take ahold of the shovel. It is ab- 

 solute folly for us to attempt to progress if we set ourselves up 

 against the use of purebred dairy sires, if we expect to produce 

 dairy producers profitably and economically. Take this one fact 

 home with you. Don't you reahze that all the improved live 

 stock that we have to-day, whether hogs, horses, sheep or cattle 

 have been built up to their great state of perfection from the 

 wild hogs, horses, sheep and cattle, largely upon the one great 

 law of breeding which says : "Like begets like or the likeness of 

 an ancestor," I have often said that it would be possible to double 

 the production in one generation. If I could only impress upon 

 your mind this afternoon that "Like begets like or the likeness 

 of an ancestor" so that every time you look at the common sort 



