BULLETIN 88. 
24 
must milk . steer’s mother in order to be able to keep the steer 
until old enough for the feed lot. 
Dairying is a confining business, but it is a business which 
will give employment at modest wages to all who are able to get 
a few cows and settle on a piece of government land. With 
dairying the plains country will support five times the population 
it will support under the system of raising beef alone. All who 
can get a location within fifteen miles of a railroad station can 
sell cream. Those farther from shipping stations would better 
work at cheese making which has proved very profitable in many 
localities. 
The greatest source of profit in dairying in eastern Colorado 
is not in the production of dollars or steers, but in the training of 
the boys and girls to habits of thrift and industry. Where no 
cows are milked about the only thing left for the children to do 
in the purely stock-raising sections is to ride around the country 
on ponies and drive cattle. If any feed is raised they may- work 
in the crop-raising a part of the season, but the chances are that 
they will grow up comparatively idle and not learn to do any 
work systematically. But with cows to milk and care for regu¬ 
larly and the calves to feed, there will be something for every 
child to do who is strong enough, and each member of the family 
may be helping to earn something to provide luxuries as well as 
necessities. Also, the income from the sale of cream will come 
monthly, while if the sale of steers is depended upon the income, 
as a rule, comes yearly. 
