368 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



words, if the poorest two-thirds of the cows in IlHnois were 

 disposed of, the net profits from dairying would be the same as 

 now. All of the profit made in Illinois dairying, and not eaten 

 up by poor cows, comes from the best third of the cows in the 

 state. 



Appalling Waste of Energy Unseen by the Dairymen. 



There are two million people milking eighteen million cows 

 twice every day in the United States, yet one-third of this energy 

 is worse than wasted, as there are six million cows that never did 

 anything to help sustain the farm, and never can or will. Cows 

 of this kind are bred on from generation to generation, and when 

 we stop to consider how easy it is to apply the dairyman's yard 

 stick, in the scales and Babcock test, to every herd, and yet real- 

 ize that less than one per cent of the two million dairymen in the 

 United States are using this yard stick today, it staggers us that 

 such conditions as these should continue to exist. Such a waste 

 of energy is appalling. Dairymen in general do not see the facts 

 represented. 



Not a Township Up to Possibilities. 



No matter whether we believe it or not, the vital question of 

 good and poor cows is a living issue confronting 

 every dairyman all the time, and he cannot get away from it. 

 There is not a single county, nor even a township, in any state, 

 which has yet come anywhere near reaching the maximum possi- 

 bilities of milk production. 



One Farmer's Eight Cows Return $4,558. 



One farmer in Illinois had 8 cows on an official test that 

 produced last year 136,715 pounds of milk, or an average of 

 17,089 pounds per cow. If this milk had been sold at wholesale 

 on the Chicago market it would have brought $2,187. Sold, as 

 it was, at 7 cents per quart, it brought $570 per cow, or a total 

 of $4,558, — not at all bad as an income from only eight cows. 



