ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 23i> 



is not carrying on the dairy business in a business way. Not 

 only is that true with hogs, it is just as true with any farm crop 

 outside of live stock husbandry. I have never seen the time upon 

 my farm for a single year when a good cow, properly cleaned and 

 fed, would not pay a handsome profit. I have seen the time upon 

 my farm when my pork and sheep paid me a handsome profit, and 

 have seen other times when I had to figure mighty close whether 

 there was any profit at all. I have seen the time when we sold 

 pork at a good profit and sometimes at a loss, and I have seen the 

 time when we sold steers at a profit and other times when they did 

 not pay me for the feed they consumed ; but I never saw the time 

 when the good cow, well fed and well cared for, would not pay 

 me a profit — and it eliminates the matter of speculation. 



Another thing, it is a steady income. You people who are 

 selling to these plants here get your pay every two weeks. I get 

 my pay every month and the man who is making butter usually 

 gets his pay a little oftener than that. It is a convenience that 

 enables us to meet our bills when they come due, enables us to do 

 a cash business. It is not true, my friends ,that no other lines of 

 business carried on on a farm allows us to do a cash business when 

 we buy as does the dairy business? Is there any other line that 

 you know of that brings in the money as steadily as does the re- 

 turns from the dairy business, and is it not a good thing to have 

 those things steady, keep our bills up and do a cash business ? So 

 it is a sure, steady income. 



Now about carrying this on in a business way. I have been 

 in this community since last Monday, have visited many farms 

 around here, many dairymen. We have a form to fill out when 

 we visit a dairyman, and among the questions we ask is, "What 

 are your gross returns per cow ?" Further down we ask him tt>r. 

 cost of keeping a cow for a year. My friends, how many men dt > 

 you suppose there are in the vicinity of Alma whom we visited 

 that could tell us how much they got per cow per year, and how 

 much it cost them to keep her? If a man were carrying on any 

 other business on the face of the earth and did not know anything 

 about what his stuff cost him or what he got from it, how long 



