Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1897-10-19

the farmers that
nis neighbors declared had been spoiled
by reading books on agriculture and
agricultural papers. He had got, as
Ross expressed it, ''high-ker-flutin
ideas" on farming in general and the
cow in particular. One proof of this
was in the action of Johnson when he
sold off all the COWS he had and took
the price and put it into single COW
or great milk and butter-producing
capacity. Ross said that this was
piece Of foolishness that could have
come only from Johnson's continual
reading of agricultural papers. Any
way, every farmer knew that COW
was cow and that was all there was
to it, and the man that would go into
fancy stock of that kind was simply
wasting his money. Why, il he had
only put his money into high-bred
hunting dog, there might have been
some reason to it.
However, Johnson continued to milk
his cow and Ross did the same. Both
sent their butter to the same market
and got about the same price per pound.
as the butter Johnson made was from
only one cow and therefore could not
we'll be sent to distant market or to
fancy customers. Johnson's wife kept
account of the receipts and eXpendi-
lures in systematic manner, and Mrs.
Ross, wishing to show that common
COW would do as much as hlgh-bred
one, also kept account on her side,
though Mr.. Ross said that that, too,
was piece OF fOolishness. At the end
OF three months Mrs. Ross confided to
her husband that the cost of keeping
their COW had just equalled the re-
cepits, while the Johnson cow had SIT
or thereabouts standing to her credit.
ROSS went out into the country and
paid $l5 for another COW, and Mrs.
Ross hopes were accordingly raised.
But the two cows cost about double the
cost Of one, and in two months more
he found from his wifes accounts that
the two cows had made profit of only
$1.S5, while the credit to the Johnson
cow was $29. Ross this time bought
$2O-cow, but at the end Of another
month the profit for the three was but
S2.65, while the Johnson cow had raised
the limit TO $33 Ross determined to
beat that COW if he had to buy whole
herd, so about once a month he would
bring home new cow, generally
bought cheap at some auction.
At the end Of eighteen months Ross
had herd of ten cows, all working as
faithfully as they could to beat the
Johnson COW. The product was great
ly increased in volume, even though
one or two of the animals had run dry.
But the expense of keeping them was
considerable, and it seemed to Ross
that all the money he took from the
grocer he paid out again to the feed
man for feed, but this was not quite
so. Moreover it had become a great
burden with the Ross family to milk
ten cows twice day and otherwise
care for them. Mrs. Ross suggested
that they had better hire a man to
help, but Ross WINGED at the PROPOSE
ton and said that the profits would not
warrant it. AT the end of the time
specified the Rosses, took an account of
stock, and found that the last two cows
had proved losing investment and
that now the balance was just a trifie
on the wrong side of the books. 1t had
actually cost more to keep the ten cows
than they had brought in, after figur-
ing the money value of the feed that
had been raised on the farm. They
learned that the Johnson COW had in
creased her net balance to $79.37 during
the eighteen months. This was the
last straw with Ross. He sent nine of
his cows to the butcher and gave up
dairying except for home use. He says
there is no profit in dairying. and he
knows 1t by actual experience. Being
asked how it was that Johnson made
so much from one COW he replied: "Oh,
that was bull-headed luck"