126 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



to that we go up into Vermont and New York State and say 

 "We haven't any cows, we want some of your milk cows." Did 

 you ever sit in a game, any of you sporting gentlemen, and at- 

 tempt to beat a man at his own game and take the discard from 

 his hand? That is what we are doing in a dairying way in 

 Massachusetts. Do you think we can go up into Vermont and 

 get the best cows? We cannot now. They have got forry-two 

 Dairy Inspection Associations in Vermont. The thing that I 

 want to emphasize is this : That in Massachusetts they must 

 raise their own stock ; and that's one thing that I want to say 

 to you because you are making a beginning here, you nave got 

 to go out and buy a few good cows now, but you can't continue 

 doing so and that is the thing I want you to remember. Your 

 farmers cannot continue to get cows up in Wisconsin and other 

 states — they are playing the same game. If you get good cows 

 you will have to pay a big price for them. As long as you are 

 making milk the main part of the industry, and that has been 

 largely what has been spoken of here, you are making the side- 

 show the main circus. There is more money to be made in your 

 cows as cows, dont forget that. You are going to pay from 

 $ioo tO' $125 for each cow and you are not going to get the 

 best; you can raise them for $^.0 and surely under $60 up to 

 the time they drop their first calf, and they will earn it for you 

 the first year, whereas when you go out and pay from $100 to 

 $125 for them, you don't get as good cows. Do not forget that 

 these men that are making a beginning must have bulls. In- 

 sist upon them getting bulls not simply to be bred to the cow? 

 that they have bought, but to those that they have on their farm. 

 Put a good, pure-bred Shorthorn, Holstein or other bull (they 

 all have merit) into every herd and avoid this continual finan- 

 cial draft to replenish your herd to keep up the industry. 



There are no seas that I know of on which there is con- 

 stantly smooth sailing, and no business that does not have its 

 drawbacks, and when you go out buying cows you sometime? 

 buy more than you bargain for and sometimes something that 

 you don't want. The advantage when you raise your own 

 stock is that you are not importing anything; that is the advan- 



