ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 2 I$ 



splendidly. I was told of twelve men last night who wanted this work 

 done, but as I have four already in that neighborhood and all I can possi- 

 bly do, I had to refuse them the privilege. 



We want to find out as near as possible what the cows are actually 

 doing, and when I come next year with a full year's record I will be able 

 to say these records are correct. I have about 350 cows under the test, 

 and from them we are going to get a great amount of information, and 

 we will be able to show up the great difference in individual cows. 



What is the object of this work? Simply to improve the dairy herds 

 of Illinois; to improve the general dairy conditions; and get the farmers 

 to build better ventilated and lighted barns; to get them to see better 

 methods of breeding; to get them to select better cows and to sell their 

 poor ones; to get them to care tor and feed their cows more judiciously. 

 I find, if there is any attempt at ventilation, that it is all wrong. A hole 

 is cut through the ceiling which lets out the warmest and purest air in the 

 barn. What we want is to get some means to take it out at the bottom. 

 Light and ventilation are what is msot needed in the barns, and I might 

 say cleanliness in a great many cases. I go to some of these farm houses 

 and have, a chat witli the farmer and tell about these things, and try to 

 show them how they can be improved. This is the object of the work. 



What suggested a man for the field, to get the farmers to sample 

 and weigh from time to time each mess of milk from every cow in his 

 herd? I will give you some reasons taken from another State. I have 

 not been in Illinois long enough to answer for this State. Gov. Hoard, in 

 the spring of 1900, sent a man into Iowa to examine and find out what 

 100 herds of dairy cattle were doing in that State. This man was to go to 

 the farmers and find out just how much dairy knolwedge they had; just 

 how he handled their dairy cows; whether they had good ventilated 

 barns; whether they saved the manure; whether or not special dairy 

 breeds or dual purpose cows were used; whether they read the dairy pa- 

 pers or agricultural papers. In short, to find out how much dairy intelli- 

 gence was put into their business. In that 100 herds there were 982 

 cows. The results are something like this: 



