72 ILLINOIS dairymen's association. 



Resolved, That we accept in good faith and belief from individual mem- 

 bers of the State Board of Agriculture their protestations of concurrence with 

 the views and efforts of this Association in the interest of honest butter and 

 honest food, and we await with anxiety such official action on the part of the 

 State Board of Agriculture as will place the high and beneficent aims of that 

 Board and those of this Association in complete and practical harmony, and will 

 enable them and us to co-operate hereafter, as heretofore, in advancing the 

 great and fundamental interests of this country. 



& C. C. BtJELL, 



W. H. HlNTZE. 



Report adopted. Committee. 



It was moved, and motion carried, that a copy of the report be sent to the 

 State Board of Agriculture. 



PROFIT AND LOSS IN DAIRYING. 



BY W. R. HOSTETTER, MT. CARROLL, ILLINOIS. 



In considering this question I shall not confine myself entirely to its finan- 

 cial view. There is a profit and loss that cannot always be counted in dollars 

 and cents. I think we are all to apt to estimate things by their money value, 

 instead of the good they do. Every occupation and calling should bring its 

 reward both in dollars and in the satisfaction of a use performed. The majority 

 of people think they do not receive enough of money for the labor they do. or 

 risk they run. I am rather inclined to the opinion that men gain wealth accord- 

 ing to the ability which they have to manage their business. The road that 

 leads to wealth for the dairyman is not over a level track upon which you can 

 go at a two-forty trot. There are hills to climb, and streams to cross where we 

 must have bridges, and good strong ones, or we will break through and be. 

 swamped. I shall endeavor to point out some of the things in dairying which I 

 think lead to success, and shall call them profit ; others which lead to failure. 

 and shall call them loss. 



The first, and one of the most important things a dairyman must have, if 

 he wants the balance to be on the profit side, is good common sense— and plenty 

 of it. He must be able to decide for himself what course to pursue. Selling 

 milk and cream, making cheese, and making butter, are each separate branches 

 of dairying. One will pay when the other will not, owing to the circumstances 

 under which the dairyman is working. My experience in dairying lias been 

 altogether in making butter, and my remarks will be on that branch of dairying. 

 The items that go on the profit side are butter, skim milk, and buttermilk, 

 calves and manure. On the opposite side are feed, labor, and dozens of small 

 items that cut down the profits at almost every corner. The gross receipts loi 

 butter will vary considerable on account of the variation in the price of buttci 

 from year to year. This will be partly offset by the variation in the price of 

 feed ; but it does not always follow that when butter is low that feed is low. 

 The feed in most dairies is raised on the farm, so that the actual cost (the labor 

 of raising it), will vary but little on account of the small variation in the cost 

 of farm labor. But the actual or market value will sometimes vary 50 

 per cent. On counting the cost of feed it should be put at its cash value on the 

 farm. 



