DRY-FARMING CONGRESS, WICHITA, 1914 



207 



finds himself, all at once, in possession of a dairy herd is more than apt to 

 go wrong in his work until he learns how to handle those cows. He must 

 learn what kind of feed they should have, and how to get that feed before 

 the cows in such shape that they can make the most of it; he must learn 

 what his soil will produce; he must know something about breeding the 

 animals; he must know something about marketing the dairy products in 

 order to get the most from the products he has to sell. All these things 

 are matters that take study; they are things that must be studied on the 

 farm; they are things that can be learned by the man who likes the dairy 

 business, but for the man who has no love for the dairy business, there is 

 very little he will learn; and that little he will learn from books. 



Here in Kansas — in Oklahoma — in all this great Western country, we 

 have many men who are milking cows. Some of these men are making a 

 fair profit from their business. Many are finding it profitable because on 

 their farms, they all have stock that before they began milking, were 

 simply raising them calves each year, and by milking these cows they have 

 been able to market an additional product; and it enables them to make 

 much more. Strictly speaking, these men are not necessarily dairymen. 

 They are taking advantage of an opportunity that comes their way, and 

 possibly there are men all over these Western prairies who could well afford 

 to take that advantage of a situation which has been before them and to 

 get the income that may be derived by milking such cows as they have on 

 their farms. Just as soon as these men begin to study their problems as 

 a dairyman, they are going to find it necessary, in order to make a profit, 

 to get better stock than they have on their farm, and if they are not inter- 

 ested enough in the dairy game to make the study — if they are not interested 

 enough to increase those profits, we do not class such farmers as dairymen. 

 The man who is interested whether he has much capital or not; who has a 

 keen interest in the dairy cow; who likes that kind of farming, has oppor- 

 tunities before him for improvement, for profit, for a line of work that will 

 be something of which he can be proud, such as very few other lines of 

 farming offer. 



The difference between those extremes is so wide and the possibilities 

 are so many that it offers a very inviting field to the man who loves that 

 kind of work and who sees the oportunity he has for improvement ahead of 

 him. The question so far as it applies to the dry-farm is, first, one of the 

 permanent food supply for the dairy herd. That has been discussed in this 

 conference by many speakers. This question of a permanent, suitable food 

 supply is above all other issues so far as livestock farming is concerned. 

 Without that, he will not be able to make it a permanent success, because, 

 when dry years come and cattle have to be sold, the work of breeding and 

 selecting are thrown away and we have to begin all over. But we know 

 now what may be done on these Western plains with the silo, and the forage 

 crops that we get from our sorghums are furnishing a permanent food 

 supply. There need be no more sacrifice of stock such as we have seen 

 because those years will come when the feed does not grow sufficient to 

 carry the stock through the winter. 



