ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 93 



DAIRY FARMING IN ILLINOIS. 



BY COL. CHAS. F. MILLS, OF SPRINGFIELD, ILL. 



Among the essential elements to success in dairy farming may be men- 

 tioned good dairy stock, soil and climate suitable for the production of the 

 ration likely to ensure a large yield of milk of the quality best suited to the 

 wants of the butter andr cheese maker, and not the least, experienced and 

 skillful farmers and manufacturers of dairy products. 



The matter of obtaining cows that will return a good profit on the origi- 

 nal investment and turn the food consumed to the best advantage, is one of 

 the greatest importance, as with soil and other conditions favorable to suc- 

 cess, disappointment and loss will result, unless the dairyman has cows of 

 better quality than the average. 



In the selection of dairy stock it has too frequently been the custom to 

 purchase cows for temporary use and dispose of them to the feeder or butcher 

 as soon as the flush or the best part of the milking period had passed. This 

 plan may be advisable in a few exceptional cases, but as a rule should not be 

 followed. 



The difliculty of securing average good cows where this system is prac- 

 ticed increases each succeeding year, while the loss in the near future from 

 the too common practice of consigning to the block good and bad milkers is 

 irreparable. The number of successful dairymen who have demonstrated 

 the advantages and profits resulting from the saving of the best cows and 

 improving the quality of the produce by breeding to sires of demonstrated 

 dairy value, is increasing each year. The dairymen of Illinois cannot do their 

 SODS and successors in business a better service than by retaining their best 

 cows for perpetuating and improving upon the best standards of this dairy 

 cow of the period. 



As the cost of feeding pure bred stock is no greater than that for subsist- 

 ing native or scrub stock, while the average value of the pedigreed stock is 

 several times that of the common stock, it should not require any argument 

 to convince our dairymen that they will materially advance their pro^^perity 

 by investing their available means in well-bred, recorded dairy cows. The 

 demand for recorded dairy cows of the several leading breeds is increasing 

 more rapidly than the preparations made for the supply. The dairymen of 

 Illinois will serve their interests and greatly add to the wealth of the state 

 by substituting as fast as practicable pure bred animals for the native or 

 scrub stock now in too general use. 



The revenue to the foreign breeders of Holstein or Dutch Friesian cattle, 

 the breeders of Ayrshire and Jersey cattle, compare favorably with the 

 amount annually received for the dairy products sold from the famous dairy 

 sections of Europe. 



There are not enough herds of Holstein, Ayrshire or Jersey cattle in 

 America to supply the necessities of the dairy farmers of this country for 

 pedigreed bulls, and it will be many years before there will be raised a frac- 

 tion of the number of recorded females of these breeds needed by our dairy- 



