84 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



this was not very deep. You ought when you go into dairying 

 know about the fertility of your soil and to know the greatest 

 producing crop you can raise. I should consider that was what 

 you wanted to know. 



I beg to be excused for reading my address, but my time 

 was so short I could not well commit an address to memory, and 

 if I got up and talked without having written it off I probably 

 would switch off on some other thing. 



When a man contemplates going into some business enter 

 prise or enlarging his present business, or seeking any change 

 whatsoever, the first question that comes to his mind is, will it 

 pay, that is, will it pay the interest on the investment, taxes, 

 salaries, insurance, repairs or upkeep of property and return a 

 reasonable profit. The real business man takes all these things 

 into consideration, gives it deep study and finally decides only 

 when his best judgment tells him it is a good investment. 



Is this true of the farmer and dairyman? In the majority 

 of cases we think it is, but in a very large majority of cases it 

 is not true. 



Let me say that when I Went to Iowa twenty-two years ago 

 grass land was worth nothing. Land had no particular value. 

 We put our cattle out, paid 50 cents a season to have them 

 herded, so it did not make much difference what we kept. We 

 were sure to make some money. 



Land is no longer cheap, and what seems a high price now 

 will seem very low in a very few years. Labor is high in price 

 and very much of it is inefficient and we see no hope of improve- 

 ment. Automatic machinery is taking the place of much labor. 

 Less men are required to do the work on the average farm than 

 formerly. Today a man must be highly intelligent, must have 

 considerable mechanical skill to handle the many kinds of intri- 

 cate machinery, so as to get the most and best work out of them. 



Nearly every farmer knows this to be so and most farmers, 

 their sons and the best hired help are able to handle all kinds of 

 machinery used on the farm successfully. I think down in South- 

 ern Illinois you can get better help at less wages than we can get 

 in Iowa. Last winter I hired a good looking young man and set 



