you dig a million dollars out of a gold mine, you have nothing 

 left but a hole in the ground, and I am told that you are 

 much surer of the hole in the ground than you are of the 

 million dollars. In a country like ours where agriculture is 

 the true basis of all wealth, this question of the conservation 

 of soil fertility is of fundamental importance. 



In view of these facts, I have no further apology to ofEer 

 on behalf of the dairy industry. 



A broad application of the term, "dairying industries," 

 would include milk production, the milk supply of town and 

 cities, the manufacture of butter, cheese and condensed milk 

 and the numerous by-products obtained from the casein of 

 milk, such as substitutes for ivory and celluloid, adhesives, 

 woodfiUers, paint, pencil erasers, toilet cream, &c., &c. But 

 knowing the short time at my disposal, and believing that the 

 patience and endurance of the members of the May Court 

 Club and their friends must have limitations, I am obliged 

 to use the term in a more restricted sense this evening. I shall 

 confine myself, therefore, to a brief reference to the two great 

 branches of the industry, namely, the manufacture of butter 

 and the manufacture of cheese, vdth particular reference to 

 the butter and cheese which is made in factories. It has been 

 the common practice to base all estimates of our progress on 

 the factory end of the business, because the home end of dairy- 

 ing is such an unknown quantity that accurate figures are not 

 obtainable, although it is estimated that the milk which is 

 used for direct consumption, and the butter which is made on 

 farms have a value which is at least double the value of the 

 butter and cheese made in factories. 



The use of milk and its products as foods for man, dates 

 back to the very earliest times. We find frequent mention of 

 butter and cheese in the early books of the Bible. Cheese was 

 known to the Greeks before the time of Homer, and Csesar 



