92 ILLINOIS dairymen's association. 



While I count it inevitable that imitation dairy products or substitutes for them 

 will continue to be made in large quantities, I do not believe this is necessarily 

 a bar to profitable dairying. With well-enforced laws compelling the sale of 

 these imitations under properly descriptive names, I do not believe the demand 

 for good dairy products will decrease. 



Certainly I would not advise dairymen to abandon the business, nor to go 

 on in a half-hearted way. But, more than in times of marked prosperity, it will 

 be necessary to carefully consider every available means for increasing profit, 

 and I simply suggest one line of action. 



I lose none of my conviction that some diversity of product is best for most 

 farmers, as well as for most agricultural regions. Exclusive attention to. one 

 branch of farming sometimes is best ; sometimes, also, he succeeds who has 

 many irons in the fire — who undertakes "to do a little of everything." I 

 count either a dangerous extreme. 



As I see it, increased attention to stock-rearing and feeding, and to grain- 

 raising, may wisely be given by many dairymen. I know the plausibility of the 

 arguments in favor of devoting the whole farm to the dairy cows ; buying cows 

 as those on hand fail ; buying feed for them, etc. But I also know that, in 

 practice, many ingenious calculations prove faulty. Especially in times of close 

 margins for profit, it is important for the farmer to fully use his land and his 

 labor, personal and hired, as well as that of his teams and machinery. Growing 

 more grain will enable some dairymen to more nearly do this. Grain growing 

 for sale usually gives poor returns, but growing the grain he feeds, so far as is 

 practicable, is not a bad plan for the dairyman. There are advantages in old 

 pastures or meadows ; but we have all seen many such in the dairy regions of 

 Illinois which most of all needed plowing up, and which were well fitted to pro- 

 duce two or three good crops of corn and oats, perchance of wheat ; then re- 

 seeded, they would give larger yields of better grass than now. 



Who is better fitted for rearing first-class cows for the dairy than is the 

 experienced dairyman? He knows what is wanted. He ought to have a good 

 breeding herd if he choose to rear graded stock. He, equally with any other 

 man, should be able to make a profit from rearing pure-bred cattle. Especially 

 is it true of butter-making dairymen that they have good facilities for rearing 

 cattle. I count the manufacture and sale of poor skim cheese one of the serious 

 mistakes of Illinois dairymen, and believe it a better, more politic and more 

 profitable use of skim milk to feed it to calves or, in default of them, to pigs. 

 In common with very many others I have for years shown the easy practicability 

 of rearing really good cows and steers, using no whole milk after the calves are 

 ten days or two weeks old. It seems to me clear that there is a profit, even at 

 present low prices, in producing good cattle, with economical methods, where 

 the advantages for marketing them are so good as those in the chief dairy region 

 of Illinois. 



It not unf requently happens that the work essential in caring for the dairy 

 cows and the milk, with that which is necessary on all farms, requires men and 

 teams who cannot all be profitably employed all the time under the exclusive 

 dairy system. In such cases the rearing, feeding and general care of stock and 

 the growth of something of an increased acreage of grain would seem a natural 

 and profitable resource. 



