ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 8S 



dair3ing, but the farmer will find no better market for corn, oats and hay 

 than that supplied by his milch cows. 



In central Illinois we have rich land, good markets ,improved machinery, 

 favorable climate, plenty of rain fall, good drainage— in short, everything 

 calculated to improve the condition of men and make the agricultural popu- 

 lation the most affluent of all our people. IsTotwithstanding all these favor- 

 able circumstances a large portion of our rural population are not pros- 

 pering. 



It is natural for industrious men, doing business, to gradually accumu- 

 late property and it is unnatural for the^population of central Illinois, with 

 their eminently fertile lands and other favorable circumstances, to make 

 such small profits. 



One great fault in our agriculture is idleness. I do not mean that we 

 are a lazy people, but that our present methods of farming involve a large 

 amount of idle time. Nearly every farmer has a considerable portion of his 

 capital invested in agricultural machinery, each of which implements are 

 needed to perform but a few days work each year. The farmer himself and 

 the farm hands— the most costly of all his implements— are either idle or do- 

 ing unremunerative work often as much as five months in the year. This is 

 true in its strongest sense with strictly grain farms, lessening in degree as 

 live stock or other industries enter into the farm management. This idle 

 time on the part of the farmer is, of course a direct loss to himself. But 

 farm hands out of employment are in fact paid for their idleness. These 

 men must be supported. When they are employed the farmers are obliged 

 to pay them at an increased rate sufficient to bridge over their seasons of 

 idleness. Should the farmers refuse to pay these rates, the farm hands 

 would seek some other employment thereby making a scarcity of labor— soon 

 forcing up the price to at least what it costs a man to live a year. If two 

 hundred dollars is a reasonable sum for an industrious man to earn during 

 the year from which he supports himself and sets aside a reasonable profit; 

 then in order to maintain such industrious men as farm laborers, that amount 

 must be paid them per annum; and if the usual method of farming employs 

 laborers but seven months in the year then the laborers must receive the 

 year's wages for the seven months. 



If by a general change in our farm management we could not only con- 

 stantly employ such capital as we have invested but give employment to 

 farm hands the year around we could both benefit our men and ourselves. 

 We would receive a larger profit on the capital invested in implements and 

 labor and could afford to pay the farm hands larger annual wages. 



In considering the different ways of continuing farm work through 

 twelve months in the year, no industry presents greater advantages than 

 dairying,more land being devoted to pasture,fewer hands are required in the 

 summer months to cultivate and harvest the crops of grain and hay; while 

 in the winter months more labor is needed in feeding these crops and giving 

 the cows the attention and care, feeding, milking and sheltering that so 

 abundantly pay for the effort. Ko less labor would be used but it would 

 be more evenly distributed through the year. 



