The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 51 



The Illinois Central railroad, appreciating the Department of 

 Agriculture at Washington, the administration field work of that 

 department; the agricultural colleges of the various states 

 through which our lines traverse, took it upon themselves, a few 

 years ago, to co-operate with those agencies to the best of their 

 ability. 



Mr. C. H. Markham, president of our road, is vitally inter- 

 ested in your development work. He made his mark, years ago, 

 on the Southern Pacific in this work; and it is not many years 

 since he was only a station agent ; but through his activities, 

 and what he was able to bring about with the various adminis- 

 trations interested in development work, he is today President 

 of one of the largest corporations of transportation in this 

 country. 



He directed me to look over the Southern Mississippi Valley 

 to ascertain what further could be carried on — what should be 

 done at once. 



I went over the State of Mississippi in the interests of the 

 creamery business, feeling that that great state should make its 

 own butter. I discovered there were two creameries in the 

 state two years ago last fall — one carried along on the Mobile & 

 Ohio, and a small one at Brookhaven, on the Illinois Central, a 

 failure for very good reasons. I do not desire, however, to over- 

 look the Creamery Co-operative Dairy College, at Starkville, 

 Mississippi, which, of course, was a success — a demonstration to 

 the people of that state who wished to consider the dairy business. 

 It was my recommendation that all communities served by the „ 

 Illinois Central, where they would guarantee sufficient cows or Development 

 butter fat, construct a proper building in an up-to-date way, that in Mississippi 

 our company furnish the business manager, at our expense, for 

 one year ; realizing, that in a year's time, such a man could picture 

 to the farmer the importance of getting a good milk cow, explain 

 to him the separator, explain about utilizing the natural fertilizer, 

 etc. Several of those co-operative creameries are under way, 

 after two years, and all are a success. At this time, together with 

 those who have taken the work up in a private way, there are 

 seventeen creameries in Mississippi. I sincerely hope that the 

 state will call upon the Illinois Central within the next twelve 

 months for sixteen more creameries managers. We will be pleased 

 to furnish them at our expense. 



