H2 ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



I hardly know what to say first, and I don't know what the last thing 

 will be. My subject is the selection and care of the dairy cow. You 

 have so many pictures before you this afternoon that I do not want to 

 take too much of your time. 



You must, in order to get good dairy cows, select cows that look 

 like dairy cows. You want to get acquainted with your cows, and that 

 may take two, three or four years and maybe more. You know our wives 

 don't get acquainted with us for fifteen years. Sometimes we find we 

 have been foolish in feeding our cows. 



I want you to select your dairy cows just where charity begins, right 

 in your own home, in your own herd. Get the scales and the Babcock 

 test. By giving the cow all she is entitled to. She is not to blame for 

 one single thing; neither for her color or her breeding or tendency, her 

 appetite of any of those things. They are all in your hands. 



Now then, you must take this cow out of your own herd. You must, 

 with the Babcock test and scales, weigh and test it and see how much 

 profit she is giving you for a week so you may know at the end of the 

 week how much profit you are getting. Go through your whole herd the 

 same way. 



Don't for any reason that you may conjure up, discharge her with 

 her first calf. Bring her into the very best possible physical condition 

 and feed her a good balanced ration and let her prove her ability, and 

 then if she is not a good cow you can get rid of her. I would go through 

 the whole herd this way. It will take some time to do it, and get rid of 

 the unprofitable cows. One unprofitable cow is a tremendous thing in 

 a herd of dairy cattle. If you have two cows, and one is making ten cents 

 a day and the other loses ten cents a day on the labor and food consum- 

 ed, how much are you going to make in a year, yes in forty years? You 

 have got to get a third cow before you make any money, and that third 

 cow must be a good one. 



I want you to think of these things. You fathers have no business 

 to let your wife provide for the help of a dairyman and ask your boys to 

 get up early in the morning and care for the cows and stay up at night 

 to milk, unless you can show to those sons and daughters that there is 

 some money coming in as a profit. There was once an old presiding eld- 

 er who visited a house and after the love feast he said, among other 



