72 ILLINaiS STATE DAIKYMEN's ASSOCIATIOlSr. 



but we must guard against false economy. It is not economy to hire 

 a scalawag man, any more than it is to buy a scalawag cow ; we must 

 carefully avoid both. It is not econonay to keep but one nisan, when 

 you have work for two. Fay good men fair wages, as the times go^ 

 and employ enough help to do your work in a thorough and season- 

 able manner. With brains at the helm, I am convinced that the 

 more men employed, the more money made. Let us get out of our 

 iarms and our cows all that i& in them. Let us raise no weeds, keep 

 no dead-heads, and we will succceed in spite of low prices. 



It is important for us also to consider that everj'thing 

 which tends to a better system of farming, to an increased yield per 

 acre from unplowed meadow and pasture lands, to better drainage, to 

 better care and application of manures, better care of tools, better 

 fences, more thorough eradication of weeds — the curse of the agri- 

 culturalist; in a word, everyrthing that tends to thrift, economy ^ 

 enterprise and progress, will cheapen the production of milk, directly 

 or indirectly. 



As I have said before, I am not sanguine that with our best 

 endeavors we can keep pace with the depreciation in price of our 

 products, but this very depreciation may be profitable to us in 

 another way. 



If the efforts that we are obliged to make to stem the tide of 

 bad fortune should make us better farmers than we were before, bet- 

 ter men than we were bf^fore ; if it should cause a renewal in us of the 

 old-fashioned virtues of honesty, economy and industry ; if it should 

 cause us to adopt the golden rule, " Pay as you go," if it should com- 

 pel us to do without superfluities and luxuries until able to pay for 

 them, then might we truly exclaim with the " Bard of Avon"- 

 " Sweet are the uses of adversity, 

 That like a toad, ugly and venomous, 

 Bears yet a precious jewel in its head." 



Thos. Bishop : Asked if there were not many ways 

 of furnishing milk. Some used a small patch of ground, 

 bought all their feed and made a large quantity of milk, 

 while some used large farms and produced no more. Which 

 was the better plan ? Who could give the exact figures ? 

 He would like to know which was the cheapest. He could 

 keep one cow on five acres ; no less. Some claimed to 



