STATE DAIRY ASSOCIATION. 589 



The Secretary: Mr. President, the first impulse was to say "no," and 

 tlie second impulse is to say "yes." I liaven't ttie facts at my finger ends 

 to back tliat opinion, but I linow tliere is not enough first-class butter in 

 our markets in this city to supply the demand. I think it is true that there 

 are some disagreeable features in the production of butter, especially 

 where you produce the ordinary market grades. I feel this way, that the 

 farmers of our State, many of them, are making enough money so that 

 they are satisfied and thej^ are not going to do some of the disagreeable 

 work in connection with the dairy for more money, but I also believe that 

 if in every community in the State of Indiana enough people who have got 

 to do whatever they can do to make the most money will do the necessary 

 work in the dairy that they will get a good return for it. I believe that the 

 status of the dairy business for the next period of years will be such that 

 any person who will make butter in the creamery can produce it at a price 

 that will bring him a fair profit, and I also believe just in proportion as 

 he increases his business he may increase his profit. There is too much 

 poor butter that don't make anybody a profit. I know that among our 

 Indiana creameries there has been no complaint about the price they are 

 getting for their l)utter, l)ut the howl has been, "How can we get the 

 farmers to bring more milk?" "We have to show two classes of people 

 the advantages. First, that class of men who have to work early and late 

 to make both ends meet — when that class take up dairying, we have to 

 show them that they can make more money in dairying than in anything 

 else, and the second class are the rapidly increasing number of land 

 owners who are renting their farms. There are lots of farmers in this 

 State who lease their farms that do not receive a reasonable interest on the 

 investment. I believe these men are realizing that, because I have seen 

 one or two inquiries in the paper about a system of renting which would 

 be based on dairying. One man I ran across within the last month leased 

 his farm to a dairyman and he furnishes all the farm and furnishes all 

 the stock for half of the return, half of the butter and half of everything 

 kept on the farm. Then if there is anything to be bought that is not 

 produced on the farm, the landlord pays for half of it. The renter fur- 

 nishes all tlie labor and gets half the proceeds. 



Mr. FoUette: I saw in a paper the other day an item concerning the 

 creameries in Iowa, and they said that the good times are the cause of the 

 decrease. It was because the corn was so high. 



Mr. Gurler: You may take it in the Elgin section of Illinois. I know 

 one of the most successful dairymen in Kane county, Illinois, who has two 

 farms. On one of his farms he is keeping steers in place of milking cows. 

 The trouble has been the high price of beef. If men make as much 

 money without milking the cows, they are going to refuse to milk the 

 cows; but the tide is turning, for I know of many steer feeders in our 



