ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 49 



ing, and breeding these become important factors and should 

 merit our most careful consideration. 



I would recommend the practice of winter dairying. First, 

 for the reason that dairy products command a better price on 

 the market; second, for the reason that farm labor is cheaper 

 during the winter and other farm duties are not so pressing as 

 to divert our attention from the many details that conduce to 

 the comfort and well doing of our animals ; third, for the reason 

 that I believe it a more favorable time for the early growth of 

 the calf, and fourth, and chiefly for the reason, that by the use of 

 warm, comfortable stables, the succulent ensilage corn crop, good 

 hay and a liberal grain ration, a maximum flow of milk can be 

 maintained for a longer time during the lactation period and at 

 a minimum cost of production. 



The gun and the man behind it is the combination that does 

 the most effective execution, and there is still needed in American 

 dairy husbandry, more intelligence and a broader dairy educa- 

 tion. Our lawyers, our clergymen, our physicians, and all our 

 prefessional men are given years of mental training in our 

 colleges, preparatory to launching into the actual business opera- 

 tions of their chosen professions, but the farmer boy usually 

 finishes his training in the country schools and at an age when 

 he little realizes the importance of mental discipline. But how- 

 ever this may be, he receives no special training that touches 

 upon agricultural education. To be sure he knows how to hold 

 a plow, how to drive a team, and how to milk a cow, but he 

 knows no more about the composite elements of the soil than he 

 knows about law; no more about a well balanced ration for a 

 dairy cow than he knows about preaching, and until he is thrown 

 into contact with these propositions in actual business life, where, 

 if he learns at all, he learns through experience, which is often 

 an expensive teacher. And so I say, there is need of a broader 

 education, not necessarily in classical training but along the lines 

 of our life's occupation. 



It has been said, " He who makes two blades of grass grow 

 where but one grew before is a public benefactor." So there 



