190 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



I knew one dairyman who used to complain a good deal 

 about the dairy business; he was a renter. The year before 

 last he produced 21 eight-gallon cans of milk through January. 

 Three persons did the work and the milk brought in $900, or 

 about $1 per day per cow. That is pretty good business. And 

 the year before that I kept track of him and for every dollar's 

 worth of feed, he produced $3 worth of milk, besides having 

 50 tons of manure to put back upon the soil. You have no con- 

 ception what you can do with the right kind of cows if you 

 get into the game. 



Another farmer who has 140 acres said the price of milk 

 was too low. He used to make from three to five cans of milk 

 on that 140 acres. That fami changed hands and a young 

 German bought it; he keeps one more hired man and he makes 

 from 28 to 35 cans of milk and during his two highest months 

 he received $215 for his milk. He is building up his farm; it is 

 getting better every day; yields getting higher all the time. 

 How long will it take him to pay for that farm? 



You look upon farming as a drudgery; you want to raise 

 it above drudgery. You take building up the soil, better yields, 

 and feeding to wellbred animals and seeing them thrive and 

 develop, — there is not a business on earth with greater attrac- 

 tion and where the possibilities are greater. The grandest busi- 

 ness today is agriculture; the farmers don't realize the possi- 

 bilities of their vocation. The farmer does not realize that he 

 is producing new wealth. In fact agriculture produces more 

 wealth and prosperity to our nation than any and all of the 

 other lines of activity combined, and the farmer is the only man 

 on earth who is not organized. He doesn't know his position. 



Some of you who are in the dairy business, if you have 

 any questions to ask, just do so. When I was 45 years old I 

 thought some of quitting, and I'll tell you how it looks to me 

 now: When a man quits the farm and moves to town the 

 farmers don't want much to do with him because he is out of 

 their line of business; and the city man doesn't want much 

 to do with him because he is a farmer; — now where is he? 



Now-a-days, with the free mail delivery, with the tele- 

 phone, good roads — in dairy sections we always have good 

 roads — where is there a better place than the farm? I live five 



