ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 233 



this time are sold for beef, often bringing as much as they cost and some- 

 times more. 



There should always be a provision made for summer feeding, as the 

 pastures of late years are of very short duration. Oats and peas should 

 be sown as early as the season will permit, at the rate of one and a 

 half bushel each per acre, and to be fed when the pastures begin to fail. 

 Clover makes excellent feed cut and fed in the stable, before the oats 

 and peas are ready. 



We seldom turn the cows out to grass before the 15th or 20th of 

 May, so as to give the pastures a good stare. It is a good plan to give 

 them some hay while the grass is fresh and rank; it prevents them 

 from getting too relaxed. 



The cows should be well fed in summer as well as winter, and not 

 allowed to, run down, in flesh, getting thin and. out of condition. The 

 cows giving milk are given a f ee d of grain night and morning, and 1 are 

 always on hand at milking time, consequently have no use for a dog. 

 There are some months it may no t pay to feed grain, but by doing so you 

 will' keep the dairy up so they will be ready to do business when it does 

 pay. What you feed in the barn they do not have to hunt for in the pas- 

 ture, and then probably not find it. I believe with a dairy or any kind 

 of stock if it is worth keeping at all it is worth keeping well. 



In farming and dairying, as in any business, there should be a 

 strict book account kept of all transactions — capital invested, labor ex- 

 pended, taxes, insurance, and all running expenses, for the use of which 

 all have to be deducted from the gross receipts of the farm before any 

 profit is rendered. This will stimulate the ideas of the farmer to bet- 

 ter his conditions more than anything one thing, as he compares one 

 year with another and see where he can improve on the past. 



By getting better acquainted with his business and in being a better 

 judge of values in buying and selling stock, by doing better farming and 

 trying to raise larger crops, in good care and liberal feeding of stock, 

 and close attention to his business, all of whicn will tend to raise the 

 per cent of profit on the capital i nvested. 



