Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1920-01-20
SOUTH PARIS MAINE, TUESDAY, JANUARY 2o 1920
Dairy Cow Our Foster Mother.
IN. d. Mum to N. e. Consumers.)

Dairy Cow Our Foster Mother.
IN. D. Mum to N. e. Consumers.)
| Iwonder II the public generally real.
ICES what think 10 one OF the great
reasons why our boys on the other side
during the fearful struggle We have now
emerged from were considered the most
courageous and most efficient, che best
fighting men that have ever been seen.
It seems to me 1t is due not alone to en-
vironment, not alone to education, not
alone to the inspiration which comes
from q government like ours, but Is due
to the fact that they were physically con
ditioned; and that they we're physically
conditioned very largely because we are
q milk-fed people, Notwithstanding the
fact that We are deficient In other diets
In many ways. Now I said that We were
dairy nation.
We have In this country to day about
q, 500, 900 dairy COWS. That Is more In
number than they had when the war
broke out in England, France, Italy, Si-
beria, Norway, Sweden, Poland and Ar.
menia, and almost as many as they had
in all these countries with Germany
added. You can take the population OF
the countries have named and they far
exceed the population Of the United
States. We have had for nearly -four
years more COWS per 1000 population,
with the exception of two countries In
1.-THE world. That has made Us milk-fed
nation. This great industry based on
these cows, has come into prominence In
the past three or four years, largely as q
result of two thipgs-the wonderful dis
coveries or conclusions reached by men
like DR.. McCollum IN their investiga-
tional work and from the lesson We have
learned from this war.
To my mind DR.. McCollum has done
the most valuable scientific work from q
national humanitarian standpoint OF any
scientific work in century. l am not
speaking of the utilitarian, but OF the
humanitarian side. 1t is going to be rec
ogniZed az such as time goes on. The
lesson we have learned from the war is
tbis-that of all the things necessary for
the successful nation the most important
is the food supply. Food comes from
two sources-either directly or indirectly
from the soil, aud from the water. There
is no other source of human food. More
than 90 per cent of all We eat comes di
rectly or indirectly from the soil. o.
this soil-preduced food the most impor-
tant and the most vital is the food thai
we get from the dairy cow. That brings
US right back again to the discoveries or
conclusions of DR.. McCollum and his SCI
entiflc associates on the value of milk.
The various data we are getting en-
phasizes the tremendous importance oi
dairy products. want to just drop this
caution. We have acquired the habit oi
comparing milk to other food on the
basis of food value. IL has become Gus
tomary to say-s quart of milk Is equiv
alent in food value to 80 much meat, 81
much ham, bacon-s0 much In various
other kinds of food. That Is not safe
statement to use. 1t has the same food
value as these comparative foods plus
this other element 30 essential. But you
see II you say a quart of milk is equivs-
lent in food value to pound OF steak,
the converse of that proposition should
be true-a pound of steak is equivalent
in food value TO quart of milk.
The department of agriculture showed
that during the year 1918 the increase OF
dairy COWS In this country was $4,000
over the preceding year. Now the fig
ures of the department show that for the
four years preceding 1918 the average
increase In dairy COWS in this country
yearly was 635, 900 year. So that there
was q decrease in the average produc-
tion, by average increase, in dairy cows
| in 1918 over the four preceding years OF
rs per cent. Or In other words, there
was only 25 per cent increase as COM
pared with the preceding year. Those
| flgures are alarming to student of dairy
economics; they are alarming to student
of food economics; they are alarming to
student of national and human welfare,
because unless changed there Is calam-
ity ahead of US in the years to come. 1 do
not fear the calamity ahead because l
think we are big enough 80 that our
dairy industry is going to develop and
grow to meet the requirements.
Unfortunately conditions have devel.
oped In the past three or four years
which stagger US. They are traceable in
all instances to war conditions and ex
planned BY war causes and We have got
to patiently wait until the law of supply
and demand and other natural conditions
| readjust themselves. / read an article by
an economist In Chicago recently In re
gard to the increase In cost of things
during the past two years-S0 per cent OF
the industries have reduced working
hours from 10 10 eight day. Now jusI
cost-to produce the same amount to-day
In those industries that was produced
two years ago requires 20 per cent more
labor. When you add to that the loss
of man productive power as the result OF
this war and the entering into on.pro-
ductive occupation of men who we're
prominent in productive occupation, we
find that We have 27 per cent less labor
engaged to-day than two years ago. 10
other words, it takes ~ per cent more
labor to produce the same amount of
material to-day than 1t took two years
ago to produce the same amount. The
| farmer cannot 60 on and produce unless
he can get the cost of production at least
and ordinarily he must have some com
pensation besides. 1t is difficult to de.
termine what these costs are, but this is
gradually going to equalize itself.
DAIRY COW ECONOMICAL.
The dairy COW 10 the cheapest machine
We have to-day for producing. For every
100 pounds of food that she eats she pro
duces 80 per cent OF 1t In digestble food
solids for human consumption. No other
animal produces anywhere near the
same, so that she is the cheapest food
producing machine we have. Do not al
low societies to take any action that can
endapger this inestimable value to the
human race. wish could impress on
the minds of every person in this coun.
I.try the value of having contented agri'
cultural life. The great danger to this
country to-day, as I view 1t, lies not In
the poisonous gases now being spread by
the so-called anarchist and bolshevik 10
some of these commercial centers; that
is going to be subdued. The danger lies
in the unrest and dissatisfied condition
In our agricultural communities.
This nation was born from an inspira-
tion by the freside of farm and coun-
try home. The midnight ride of Paul
Revere was an Inspiration born where
the shadows from the freight danced
on the walls In country home. There
never has been q national crisis when
that patriotic spirit engendered back
there by the fireside OF the home In the
country has not come forward with Its
night and saved the country. It is by
that fireside, whore there Is gathered In
the evening the father, mother and chill