The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-04-16
M B N, w o M EN
 A ND T H IN c s

past year their milk output was greater in value than the cotton crop
 Now, this is hard to believe, for as yet we as a people have hardly learned the A, B, of the dairying industry, and this in spite of the fact that there is not a state in the union where there are such opportunities for getting into it on big and profitable scale.
 Some day we are going to wake up to the fact that milk and butter mean money and lots of it, and that for. years we have been sleeping over veritable mint, and that the white lac tic fluid can be converted into golden butter and made to buy not only the ne- cessities but the luxuries of life for those who are willing to work in such rich mine
 The first man who ever fired my in1- agination on the subject was my friend. T. W. Palmer, president of the Alabama Technical Institute and College for Young Women at Montevallo. It was some years back while we were sitting on train seat on the way to a point association. do not suppose he had the least idea of the seed he was plant ing in my mind.
 He had recently been out in the north- west to one of the great dairying states to get data to use in erecting a dairy at the school in Montevallo. and he was full of his subject. He is the kind of man who while having the power to firmly planted on the ground. for he is a most practical administrator, as is evidenced by what he has accomplished during his presidency at our great state school for girls and young women. | He told me of his visit to one of the great universities and how it opened his eyes to find a professor with a national reputation in his oyeralls teaching a class of boys and men in oyeralls the secrets of profitable dairying. He was glad to find that while the literature of the COW was taught, yet she was not kept out of the classroom. but was pres ent to be used for demonstration pur- poses. It wasn't like the scare a lot of German professors got who for years had been lecturing on the crocodile when some wag turned one loose in the room. l
 Having gotten university viewpoint. he then went to the country and saw barns and dairies in daily operation, see ing everything he could and picking up information by the Socratic method. Ever have had a great desire to have part in making Alabama one of the greatest, if not the greatest, dairying states in these United States, and since then l have missed no opportunity to study the problem from all angles. In spite of my personal dislike of milk and butter, l bought a COW, but to be truthful, never went so far as to milk her.
 sl It was T. w. Palmer who gave me the vision of the cows possibilities when handled by experts in states like Mich agin, Wisconsin, Iowa and others in the west; but it was an expert dairy man from the west who convinced me that my native state was an ideal one for the dairying industry. He was l brought here by the bankers several years back, and I accompanied him over the state as he spoke in the various dis tricts on the question of the COW and l. sation with me before his departure he told me that from his intimate knowi- edge of the business in the east and the west he unhesitatingly was of the opinion that no state offered such advantages for dairying as did Alabama.
 Now. ever since President Palmer re- turned 10 Montevallo with the data he got from his western trip have had an interest in his experiment. for he built an up-to-date barn, put in a good herd with purebred bull. and has kept books on their milk production He Is not the kind of man who induiges in gresswork. suppose one reason that he is so accurate and painstaking comes oASt'SCA mathematics I have never yet heard him indulge in the fayorite southern idiom of 'I reckon" for he alway: knows what he is talking about or ht remains silent.
 One reason I always like to go to SCI him at Montevallo is because it give' me a chance to have a look at the cow land see what they are doing under ex pert handling. On my last visit I got t see the cows come in to be fed in thu afternoon. and it was a pleasure to fint out that no illiterates were permittet on the grounds, for each COW came il and went to her own particular stall which bore her name. The girls sa, that even the cows can read. and i looked nightly like it. for only on heifer got into the wrong pew, none O
 the older ones making mistake. The barn was spick and span in ever,
 way. The cement floors are flushed. ans there wasn't the slightest odor. wa greatly interested in the table showinI the production of each COW. On one sid
 the Jerseys are doing their best to mak a better showing than the Holsteins O
 the other side. A fine Jersey and Hol
 stein bull on a lot outside were Twin
 amicably together perfectly uncon scious of the fact that on the insid of the building a contest was going o