THIRTY-SIXTH ANNUAL CONVENTION. 359 



The most striking number in the table is the second one 

 from the bottom in the last column, showing a total loss of $112, 

 which means that this man received $112 less for the products 

 from his dairy herd than he would have received had he simply 

 sold the feed. It is well, also, to note that the profit from the 

 best cow is only $10.21, and that this best cow is indeed absolute- 

 ly inferior to the poorest cow in many of the herds in the state. 



This is a deplorable state of affairs — a man trying to support 

 a family with a herd of cows utterly unable to return a profit. 

 The actual conditions of this man's affairs is shown by the last 

 two columns of the table, and is a forceful answer to the question, 

 **Why test cows?" No man would conduct a losing business 

 when fully aware of what he is doing. ''The most important 

 education a man can have is to know how to take care of himself 

 and those dependent upon him." 



Herd No. 2, 36 Cows, Return $15 Profit Per Cow. 



Herd No. 2 has but three cows on the losing side of the ac- 

 count. Its average production is above that of the herds of the 

 state, and shows a profit of $15 per cow. ihis herd of 36 cows 

 made a total profit of $540.11 above cost of feed and labor. Yet, 

 good as this herd is, the man with herd No. 3, containing only 

 13 cows, did more real business, so far as getting ahead is con- 

 cerned. 



Little Dairy that Brings the Better Things of Life.* 



In the following herd, although of grade cows, its lowest 

 cows returned a profit of over $22, which is more than twice that 

 of the best cow in herd No. i. The difference between the indi- 

 viduals of the herd is large, but the star boarders were long ago 

 eliminated, as a result of several years' work keeping individual 

 production records of the cows and replenishing the herd by 

 using a good pure-bred sire and raising the heifers from the best 

 cows. 



*For a more detailed account of how this herd was managed and 

 how the farming operations were conducted, see Illinois Agricultural Ex- 

 periment Station Circular No. 113. 



