132 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



$i,ooo to any man's herd of ten or fifteen cows. That bull put 

 our herd on the map. We used him as long as it was possible for 

 us to use him. In the meantime we found that a creamery had 

 been built way off somewhere by a Chicago outfit and following 

 in the wake of this creamery some Holstein breeder from Il- 

 linois had sent a carload for the farmers to buy. We found 

 out that these cows had been sold to a fellow who had mort-. 

 gaged his farm and who was not a dairyman. He went busted. 

 The cows were sold at public auction and went to the four 

 winds. We picked up some of these cows, they were old by 

 this time, but we used them to the bulls and we had some pretty 

 fine heifers. Later our herd was sold. It was the saddest mis- 

 take of my life, you can take my word for that. I have seen 

 lots more money than we saw on that farm> since then, but be- 

 lieve me less of it has stuck in my pocket than used to stick in 

 my pocket on the farm. 



When my herd was dispersed, in 1901, they averaged 14,- 

 000 pounds of milk a year, there were twenty-five cows and they 

 averaged 315 to 318 pounds of butterfat per cow. 



These cows, only a few were registered, those which had 

 come from Illinois were registered cows, but the transfers hact 

 not been kept and while they were pure bred their ofi^spring were 

 not eligible to registry. We sold heifer calves six months old 

 whose mothers we could give records of. I believe because of 

 those records they sold for at least 50 per cent more than they 

 would have sold for otherwise. They sold all the way from 

 $75 to $500. As I say, I mention that not because it is an ex- 

 traordinary achievement, but you don't often hear that and 

 when you do hear it you don't believe it. 



Mr. Mason : "How many years was it from the time yoi; 

 started in until you sold out?" 



Mr. Borman: "We began in 1880 and in 1887 or 1888 

 we introduced these Holsteins into the herd and it was in 1901 

 that the herd was dispersed — eleven years." 



Mr. Mason : "In regard to selhng whole milk, you must 

 ^emember that large cities must have milk." 



