FORTY-SECOND ANNUAL CONVENTION 13 



paid for the cows, so you see it did not cost me anything to try 

 the thing out/' he told me. Still the man had the right idea, 

 he was getting into a line of business that was going to pay 

 him and I think if the truth was known we would find that 

 man in a prosperous condition and his farm worth more money 

 than it was before. 



I hope, Mr. President, that we may arouse these farmers 

 to go into the dairy business as a business, instead of a side 

 issue." 



President Mason Announces the Program. 



We are opening up our Forty-Second Annual Meeting and 

 we are where I think we are going to do some good, and we 

 want everyone here to feel free tO' ask a question at any time on 

 any phase of the Dairy business. What makes a meeting 

 interesting is the discussion. We want to discuss all phases of 

 it and you need the Dairy business down here in Southern Illi- 

 nois. I have asked many men in the northern part of the state 

 whether it would pay all the expenses and still pay a profit where 

 land is held at $125 to $150 per acre, and they say it does. The 

 earning capacity of land is what ought to govern its price. Get 

 to growing alfalfa, clover and build silos and you can work up 

 this farming business in Southern Illinois. You need it here 

 and you need it bad. 



I will tell you what Doctor Hopkins told in Wayne County 

 one day, and you would not think that that exists in Illinois, some 

 of you. You have been growing wheat and small grains until 

 it has become unprofitable and you have got to quit. He said 

 there were men on places not over twenty miles from where he 

 stood, people so poor they could not put windows into their 

 houses. The Dairy business will build up your soil and it is a 

 business that pays all the year around. 



We have been working, the officers and directors of this 

 Association, and have done more this last year than before. We 

 have held a great many meetings and I know we held about 

 thirty-five meetings. Mr. Matthews, your State Pure Food Com- 



