ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN S ASSOCIATION. 7 1 



Tou will notice that in speaking of this necessity of a better 

 average yield from our cows that I have dwelt mainly on the neces- 

 sity of raising our best calves and of weeding out our poor cows. I 

 have done so not because I consider that this is ail that is necessary, 

 or even that it is of the first importance ; far from it With the best 

 of cows we will fail, and miserably fail, if we do not shelter them 

 from the cold, feed them generously and water them abundantly. 

 But in this matter of feed and shelter, as far as my observation and 

 experience goes, we have done well in the past and are doing well in 

 the present. In the matter of water, perhaps, this is not so generally 

 true. Some cows still drink in holes, broken in the ice, on rivers and 

 sloughs, at the risk of breaking their legs ; and some travel a mile or 

 less across a snowy wast^ to a distant spring. This is all wrong, it is 

 expensive, it is ruinously extravagant Clear water, abundantly sup- 

 plied in our barn-yard to our cows, will prove a paying investment 

 and will materially cheapen the production of milk. 



Give me good cows, not runts or scalawags or culls, warm barns, 

 well ventilated, rich food, properly fed, clean spring or w^ell, water 

 close at hand, careful and intelligent milkers and I will produce milk 

 as cheaply as it can be done in North America. 



Ah ! but careful and intelligent milkers are necessary, and they 

 cost money. Do they not cost too much ? Must we not reduce the 

 wages we pay, if we would keep pace with the reduction in the price 

 of milk ? 



We must ; we certainly must. I believe that the laborer is 

 worthy of his hire, I would be the last man on earth to attempt to 

 oppress or grind the workingman. But we must be just to ourselves 

 and to our families as well as to our laborers. The dollar which we 

 pay him now has increased very much in value in purchasing power 

 within the past few years. Prices of clothing and food are much 

 lower, the expenses of an individual or family much less. We our- 

 selves receive much less for what we sell than we formerly did, and 

 justice — simple justice — demands that we should hire labor at a lower 

 price than we have been paying. In order to efifect this it is neces- 

 sary that we should act together with some degree of unanimity. If 

 we succeed in doing this, we will have cheapened the production of 

 milk so much. This question of wages is a very important one. 

 Dairymen must from necessity employ a great deal of help. I pre- 

 sume that the wages paid will average on most farms one-third, and 

 on some even^ a larger proportion, of the expenses. A reasonable 

 and just reduction in wages is therefore a thing much to be desired, 



