THIRTY-SIXTH ANNUAL CONVENTION. 363 



that is worth while. A very successful dairyman, over sixty 

 years of age, recently said : "I have made the greater part of my 

 money since I was forty- five. Up to that time, I was principally 

 engaged in making mistakes. I was following the example of 

 my neighbors, who were not real thinking dairymen. Then I 

 struck out for myself, and I have been correcting a host of i iris- 

 taken notions about cows, stables, feed, and farming in general, 

 and I have made nearly all I have since that time." Tlie ditii- 

 culty with many dairymen is, they never wake up. 



The Decisive Factor of Success is the Dairyman Himself. 



This is the day of thinkers, and it is to the dairyman's ad- 

 vantage to belong to this class. The proposition confronting 

 the dairyman today is not primarily a matter of location, soil, 

 or climate; it is he^ himself, that stands in the way of his own 

 progress. Few people realize what intelligence, care an 1 study, 

 what patience, observation and experience are needed to ]v.:\l:e a 

 good dairyman, to interpret to the mind the language of the 

 cow in such a manner as to understand her every need a: id be 

 able to properly supply it. The inherent and fatal weakness of 

 many people is that they wholly ignore the really important and 

 decisive factor of success in all fields of human acti\ity, viz : 

 trained and intelligent judgment, based on sound theory and 

 practice. The cause and cure for the backwardness of the dairy- 

 man is in his mind, and in the solution of his problems chief 

 prominence must be given to the human factor. The troul)le 

 with many dairymen is that they think they know, which is the 

 worst possible kind of ignorance. ''The first step to knowledge 

 is to know that we are ignorant." Our most successful dairy- 

 men have attained their achievements, not by luck, but through 

 intelligent forethought. 



Keep Records and Stop Guessing. 



The chief obstacle to progressive dairying is carrying it on 

 in a slipshod manner without the well balanced, intensive meth- 

 ods so important to profitable milk production. Many dairymen 



