18 II^LINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



DOES IT PAY? 



I have no doubt but what the above average result will 

 raise the question, '^Does it pay?" and that is just my object. 



Without stating it as a fact, I venture to say that at the 

 prevailing low prices for farm produce, a cow may be carried 

 through for that amount (|23.08), and possibly for less. If 

 we remember that the above result is the "average" result 

 on the farms for the whole State, it seems evident that there 

 must be many farms working at a heavy loss, and if we go 

 still further and remember that the averages of the farms 

 are obtained from the average of the individual cows, it is yet 

 more evident that there are cow^s — and lots of them — whose 

 speedy demise would prove a regular bonanza for the owner! 



The question is, which are the cows? How many of the 

 Illinois farmers can tell us at our next convention, not only 

 what this or that cow has done for a week, a month or a year, 

 but what each and every one of the cow^s (heifers included), 

 have given during the year 1897? 



How many farmers are able to give even an approxi- 

 mately correct estimate of the cost of feeding a cow? 



If this Association had the means, I would urge the en 

 couragement of testing the cows, either in the shape of pre- 

 miums to those farmers who were willing to keep a record, 

 subject to supervision of the Secretary, or as a substantial 

 bonus to those farmers who would form a Test Association. 



Such Associations have been established in Denmark, 

 where ten or twelve neighboring farmers joined for a period 

 of five years and hired a young man to do the testing and 

 keep the records. The value of this has been demonstrated 

 by the report for 1896 of one x4.ssociation where it was shown 

 that in thirteen herds, aggregating 200 cows, the cost of pro- 

 ducing one pound of butter varied from 15.1 cents up to 78. J 

 cents. 



In another the variation was from 15.2 up to 30.8 cents per 

 pound, and if these variations are found in Denmark, where 

 trade has been kept of the milk yields for the last twenty 

 years, how many of our farmers dare assert that they do not 



