ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 43 



or what the pure bred draft horse has been in improving the 

 offspring of the western bronco, all of which furnish an excellent 

 illustration of the importance of our pure bred animals and their 

 value for purposes of grading up. 



The incentive that prompts the average man to action in the 

 love of gain, his interest and enthusiasm increasing or diminish- 

 ing usually according to the size of the arc described in the swing 

 of the pendulum of prosperity, and when we consider that a large 

 per cent of the dairy cows in existence, are kept at an actual loss 

 to their owners, we can not wonder at men losing interest and 

 enthusiasm, but we do wonder that they do not search for the 

 reason. In the first place a large per cent of the cows used for 

 dairy purposes are not adapted to the purpose for which they are 

 kept; and in the second place, many never have the opportunity 

 of showing their money earning capacity from the fact of being 

 under fed, neglected, and improper management on the part of 

 the owner, and ofttimes when adversity closes its talons upon the 

 resources of the dairy farmer, he himself is to blame by not giving 

 to his business the attention, study and devotion that any enter- 

 prize would require to make it remunerative and successful. 



There may have been a time when the conditions of the 

 states of the middle west afforded a place for the dual purpose 

 cow, but if so conditions have changed and the time has passed 

 and gone, and the dairyman who is using the beef sire with the 

 idea of producing a little milk and raising a little beef is neglect- 

 ing favorable opportunities and standing in the way of his own 

 financial advancement. 



Instead of keeping a dual purpose cow to yield forty dollars' 

 worth of milk a year, why not keep the special purpose dairy cow 

 that will yield eighty dollars' worth? Instead of a dual purpose 

 cow that will raise a steer, which at two years old will bring 

 forty dollars, why not keep the special purpose cow that will 

 raise a special purpose dairy heifer, which at two years old will 

 produce a calf, convert her food into milk and herself command 

 as high a price upon the market as the steer at the same age. 



It is certainly impossible for a cow to be two things — a first- 



