ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN S ASSOCIATION. 4 1 



able in amount. Compare the product of milk strained 

 into six-quart crocks or pans, set on the bottom of a cellar, 

 churned by hand in five to fifteen pound batches, either by 

 the housewife, milkmaid, or the proprietor himself, worked 

 with a paddle or ladle, put into rolls of one to five pounds 

 and neatly marked, rolled up in a napkin or piece of old 

 cotton garment, and taken to market along with a few eggs 

 and vegetables, perhaps — compare, I say, this product, both 

 as to quality and cost in labor, with the product of an asso- 

 ciated dairy enterprise, and you have the extremes of the 

 economic view I would like to bring before you, so far as 

 quality and cost are concerned. Now consider the relative 

 rewards probably received, and the contrast is complete. 

 Now every small dairy approaches more or less near the 

 unfavorable extreme I have described, as to the cost of the 

 product in labor. The quality of the product may be, and 

 sometimes is, equal to and even superior to the product of 

 the large dairy or the associated dairy ; but this is not 

 usually so, and is liable to be so only at the cost of greater 

 expenditure in valuable labor. Circumstances may and 

 sometimes do warrant this ; but this is the exception and 

 not the rule. 



I have no doubt, therefore, that dairying as a specialty 

 is far the most profitable form in which this business can 

 be engaged in. Of course, it is better to market the butter 

 produced on any farm, over and above home wants, rather 

 than waste it ; but not much profit for labor is likely to 

 come from this source. 



The above conclusion, however, does not imply cer- 

 tain things, and it does imply certain other things. It 

 does not imply that any kind of a farmer, on any kind 

 of a farm, with any kind of cows, with any kind of 

 management, can, by making dairying a specialty, '' pay 

 t»ff the mortgage " and achieve success. It does not 

 imply that the man, who thinks he knows it all to begin 

 with and who does not master his business, will make 

 dairying profitable. It does not imply that the farmer, with 

 land especially adapted to grain raising and not to grass, 

 with water scanty or poor, will succeed. 



It does imply that the dairyman shall have a liking for 

 his business and shall master it in its details. He shall not 

 be afraid to roll up his sleeves and go to work himself He 

 shall take the dairy papers, attend the dairy conventions. 



