Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1905-02-14
SPEECHES, PAPERS, BANQUET.
The Thirty-Third Annual Convention of Wis
consin Dairymen Is Marked Success.

experience his own. is sufficient rea
son. that on some occasions at least, he
should seek chance given him for bis
mental and professional improvement
i Farming now days is much different
from what it was so years ago. Farm
ing has become a science as well as
manufacturing and hard work alone
will not always make successful
farmer, his work like any other musl
be guided by intelligence, which be
can gain only by study, by studying the
ground which he works, by studying
the qualities of the stock and the pur.
pose for which it is raised, by studying
the value of foods for stock for different
purposes, AMI the nature of the fertiliz-
ers which he uses or may use with advan-
tage, and last but not least study OF
the markets where he must SELL
{ The invention of labor saving
machinery gives him now more chance
| for reading and learning, but nothing
is more admirably adapted for mental
improvement than public lectures. A
| farmer who listens to an interesting
! lecturer and as one would say, takes
| the words from the speakers lips, is
| much more apt TO retain them IN his
memory than if he should read them
| in print. 1t is not to be overlooked
that farming is still the greatest indus.
| try of our country, that the value OF
| our farm products exceeds by far the
value of the product of any other in
dustry, if it does not exceed the total
value of them all.
The dairy products are today Sne of
the most, if not the most, important
sources of income of very large per-
Icentage of the American farmers, and
| upon the intelligent conduct of that one
branch of agriculture depends in a
large measure his success.
To make the farmer familiar with
the best methods of conducting the
dairy business and succeeding in 1t, to
increase the annual output and at the
same time increase its value per pound
is the object and purpose of this con-
vention, and we extend to you, gentle
men of this convention, our most hear
ty welcome
Our farmers, and every farmer is a
dairyman and every dairyman is far-
mer, will be glad to learn from you tie
differences in the milk of the different
breeds of cattle, which animal is best
adapted for butter, which for cheese,
beef or general purposes, II differ
ence exists in those respects /
know that our dairymen will be more
than pleased to listen to you gentlemen
especially to a practical gentleman
of their own number whose cows have
their own weight in butter in one year
who have even succeeded in coaXing
an unwilling congress to protect the
gentle American cow from the combl-
nations of the beef trust.
Gentlemen. | assure you that of the
many conventions which have been
held here, and they were of all sorts,
there were none, which we welcome
with greater degree of pleasure than
yours-the convention OF the Wis
consin dairymen.
President Hill responded in behalf of
the association. He congratulated the
people of Marathon county on having
such excellent soil and mentioned the
fact that we have the best COW in the
world. This COW is owned by Fred
Rietbrock and is on the Helendale farm
at Athens In five months she has pro-
duced 25 lbs. more butter fat than has
any other COW in the world in the same
length of time.
c. H. Everett, of Racine, editor of the
Wisconsin Agriculturist said the aver
age farmer paid more attention to the
cultivation of the soil than he did to his
mind and urged them to study more of
conditions in their chosen line.
w. D. Hoard, of Ft, Atkinson, com.
mended the agricultural schools of
Marathon and Dunn counties and said
the farmer did not give himself his
proper standing, commercially and
socially. These schools enlarge his
views of himself and better him.
Fred Rietbrock, of Milwaukee, said
he never enjoyed SO neutrality-suspicious.
in his life as he did during his two sx-
periences in farming.
At the afternoon session President
Hill delivered his annual address, which
was of a historical nature and sum-
mary of what the association has ac-
complished.
A paper written by H. X. Loomis, of
Sheboygan Falls, who could not be
present, was read by Secretary Bur-
lchard 1t described Wisconsin's dairy
exhibits at the ST. Louis fair.
Jefferson and Marathon Counties
Warnings and announcements" by G.
P. Goodrich, of Ft. Atkinson was the
next paper and was as follows:
JEFFERSON COUNTY.
Jefferson county is in the Southern part
of Wisconsin and was one of the first coun-
| ties in which the business of tilling the soil
was commenced. As early as 1870 the
| farmer began to put in his work, and in a
very few years the county was nearly as
| thickly settled with farmers as at the pres
ent time. The land was rapidly cleared up
and made ready for growing crops.
| More than half of the county was origi-
nally timbered land; the balance ''open-
| ings"-land where scattering timber grew
and wet prairies with no timber. The