FORTY-SECOND ANNUAL CONVENTION 125 



over again the experience of the preceding generation, and men 

 who have gone through it and can get up here and tell you, 

 may put it earnestly enough, yet you will walk out of the door 

 and say to yourself ''It is all right for him" but still you do not 

 act on it and you will go through the same experience, then by 

 the time you are as old as some of these more experienced men, 

 you will get up before the young fellow sand think what a fool 

 you were that you did not believe what you heard tw^enty-five 

 years ago; you will then talk as the older men now talk — and 

 the young men then will act as you are acting now. 



We have gone through some things in Massachusetts that 

 have been rather sad. Massachusetts has been a great dairy 

 state; Massachusetts unfortunately has been decreasing in the 

 number of cattle in the State dm"ing the last fifteen years ap-i 

 proximately, gradually going down hill, and we are making 

 mighty efforts to save our farming. What is the story? Milk 

 has increased in value, and more and more as milk increased in 

 value this is what happened in our dairy business. Our men, 

 twenty-five years ago, raised the cattle for the dairy business : 

 but later their feed was considered too valuable for anything 

 except fresh cows so that a very large part of the dairy indus- 

 try in the State of Massachusetts has become an industry of 

 milk production. When we want some cows — we go out and 

 buy cows and bring them in to keep up our flow of milk — wei 

 don't raise them. This has gone on until Massachusetts has- 

 become the controlling market for dairy cows and none are 

 produced to any great extent. 



Mr. Mason : Where do they get their cows ? 



Prof. McLean : From Ohio, East, I think they come some- 

 times to Chicago. 



In Massachusetts we have higher-priced land, higher-priced 

 labor, we are under Labor Union conditions practically on our 

 farms and we have to pay more for our feed, we are under 

 stricter surveillance, we have harder conditions making milk 

 cost more, and still we are competing with the fellow in the out- 

 lying sections that does not have these hardships, and to add 



