276 
Annual Report of the 
means of these advantages we can fully make up for the natural 
disadvantages under which we labor. The principal drawback to 
successful dairying in Wisconsin is our oft repeated and long con¬ 
tinued drought. But even these, by a wise foresight and a little ex¬ 
pense, may be so provided against as to, be comparatively harmless. 
The early planting of a few acres of corn expressly for summer 
feed, and a moderate stock of grain laid in to be used if needed, will 
bridge over a pretty severe drought with but little extra expense. 
The natural advantages which we enjoy over the Eastern and older 
states are cheapness of land, cheap, coarse grain and mill feed. In 
these we have so decided an advantage over the East that I am of 
the opinion that the same amount of money invested here in dairy¬ 
ing will yield a much larger dividend than in any of those 
states. I have said that cheapness of grain is one of our advanta¬ 
ges for dairying. Many persons are not aware that it costs only a 
little more to keep a cow upon grain than upon hay. It will take 
one acre of extra grass to furnish enough hay for winter fodder for a 
cow, and the same acre planted to corn, and the stalks well saved, 
will not only furnish winter fodder, but the corn if fed to the cow 
with the stalks in winter and with pasturage in summer, will ena¬ 
ble the cow to give us a good flow of milk during the milking sea¬ 
son, while the hay would do but little more than sustain the ani¬ 
mal life. The difference in cost then is the difference in the ex¬ 
pense of raising an acre of grass and an acre of corn. We have the 
same investment for land, and the difference in cost is but small 
when compared with profit from feeding the corn. The question 
of whether the dairy can be made profitable in Wisconsin has al¬ 
ready been settled. Those who have had access to the balance 
sheet of the dairymen know that no branch of farming has paid as 
well for the last eight years as the dair} r , and we think the question 
of the future dairy interest in Wisconsin will depend largely upon 
the amount of brains we put into it. 
If we undertake to run it in a slip-shod manner as we do much 
of our other farming, it will prove a failure. On the other hand, if 
we intelligently care for and foster it, we may rely upon good, finan¬ 
cial returns. Many are still fearful that the business is going to be 
overdone; that more butter and cheese is going to be made than 
can be sold at a paying price. Upon a careful review of the whole 
matter, we think these fears are groundless. When we consider the 
