THIRTY-EIGHTH ANNUAL CONVENTION 73 



tains an account of experiments conducted for the past six year-. 

 I think you would all do well to get this and read it. It con- 

 tains a whole lot of good matter which I will try briefly to give 

 you. A herd of cows that averaged 387 pounds of butter fat 

 per cow were fed at a cost of $65.00 each. This was done under 

 government supervision; another herd that gave only 200 pounds 

 of butter fat the cost of feed was $43.00 per cow. I would like 

 to urge upon you the necessity of testing your cows because I 

 believe there is scarcely any limit of what you can get from 

 them if you go at. it in the right way and know what you are 

 doing. 



I think as I stood before you five or six years ago and had 

 the privilege of speaking to you that I emphasized then, as I 

 always do, the necessity of maintaining the fertility of the soil. 

 This is a thing that is confronting us more seriously today than 

 ever before, and we are just beginning to appreciate the wonder- 

 ful fertilizing powers of this dairy cow. 



To show you how we are groping in the dark, a certain 

 State recently published a bulletin, and it is the claim of a Pro- 

 fessor there that it is all a mistake that we can maintain the 

 fertility of our soil if we grow clover or alfalfa. He says that 

 the roots are only drawing on stored up fertility and that we are 

 still continuing to exhaust the soil. I do not know whether this 

 is so or not. I give it to you for the purpose that you may think 

 about it. If this is so it is an important point. If we are only 

 using a medium to bring that fertility to the top it is something 

 that we should know. It is one of the most important things 

 for every community to know. 



I understand there was a college Professor in the State of 

 Illinois who at one time said there is no such thing as the ex- 

 haustion of the soil. We have always believed that there was 

 because we see the decreasing of the fertility of our soils by our 

 lessened crops each year. 



I never like to stand before an audience and brag about 

 what I have done. I always feel I have done so poorly for the 

 opportunities that I have had, and for the knowledge that I have 

 had, that I do not like to tell it, but I do the best that I can with 



