The Influence of the Sciences in Improving Dairy Husbandry Practices

When an historical study is made of the part that the fundamental sciences have played in the development of the daily industry, some definite and interesting relationships are found to exist between the sciences and the dairy practice of to-day. In the minds of many people, dairying is a business that is rather commonplace. We hear it said that it takes no very learned man to make a success in dairying, whether it be in the production of the milk or in the manufacture of the products of milk. This conclusion is reached because of the observer's lack of knowledge of what principles underlie these common dairy practices. Scientific principles have been applied for so long in this field that it has been quite forgotten that the particular practice in question has a scientific background.To recount these relations, therefore, is of interest from an historical standpoint. It is also important from the point of view of any scientific organization depending on labile support for its existence. The practical mind can not look ahead far enough to see what the net returns may be of an expenditure for scientific research. A review of the part science has already played in the industry gives concrete evidence of what may be expected of it in the future.