ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 79 



Wednesday Morning, January nth 



What Dairying Has Done for Southern Illinois. 



MR. RrG. WELFORD, RED BUD, ILL. 



The subject assigned to me is one to which I cannot do justice without 

 encroaching largely on what has been read at a former meeting of this 

 Association. Does Dairying pay in Southern Illinois? And What Dairy- 

 ing has done for Southern Illinois are subjects that cover almost the same 

 ground. I will try and keep to the latter as much as possible. 



In my experience of thirty years in the dairy business in Canada, Ohio, 

 Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, and Illinois, it has taught me that where the 

 milch cow is. there is increased prosperity, whether that particular locality 

 is in the so-called dairy belt or not. 



Here in Southern Illinois, we have a climate that is good for the dairy 

 cow, and a good demand in the further south for butter and a good market 

 in the east, St. Louis, for all kinds of stock, and the cow with an intelligent 

 milker and feeder, the southern Illinois cow will do as much in a financial 

 was as the northern cow. 



When the creameries first started in Southern Illinois fresh milch cows 

 were worth from $15 to $25, and now they are worth double and very few 

 for sale. And why is the value increased? Because selling milk has 

 taught the farmers that it pays to keep better cows, better cows meaus bet- 

 ter calves, better calves means better prices, and petter prices mean more 

 of them, and the increase of cows means more fertile farms. And what 



