ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 101 



I don't know that there really is anything further to say from Wash- 

 ington as to the Division work for the past six months. I will say this: 

 That any matter you wish to ask about you can write to Maj. Henry E. 

 Alvord, Chief of the Dairy Division, and if he can in anyway assist you, he 

 will answer any question you have to put to him. Much as we may appre- 

 ciate this help, unless the farmers help themselves, it is all thrown away. 



I am disgusted to see at the State Dairymen's meeting that we have 

 no larger meeting than this. We ought to have at least 1,000 people 

 here. Now I don't mean to say anything harsh to those who do come to 

 these meetings. This meeting is fairly well attended, but we don't reach 

 the men whom we want to reach, and I want to say one thing to you present 

 here. If you would go home and organize small farmers' clubs and hold 

 meetings (even if but ten or twenty attended) in a school house, once a 

 month, and get up discussions about how to handle milk, and how to take 

 care of cows, etc., then you would be on the right road to salvation. You 

 could send delegates to these State meetings, and you can get all the help 

 you want from the Government if ycu show them that you want to help 

 yourselves first. 



I am generally called a crank because I always have some hobby. One 

 of the hobbies I started in 1890 was, 1 happened to see a little paper on how 

 the Smiss cheese -makers watch the farmers and insures good milk. 

 Most of your creamery men pay according to the percentage of the fac. 

 The question comes up, is the fat always a measure of value. Is 5 per cent 

 milk that is full of deleterious bacteria worth as much as 4 per cent milk 

 that is sweet and wholesome? In Switzerland they do not pay according 

 to the quality of the milk, but they use what they call fermentation tests. 

 It is simply to take a sample of your farmer's milk in a bottle and set it in 

 warm water, (90 to 110 degrees) and keep it warm and cover the glass for 

 some nine or ten hours. If then you will examine your sample of milk 

 you will see the difference. You will get an ocular demonstration. 



In my native country I notice that this discussion of paying according 

 to other quality, than the fat, according to the condition of the milk, has 

 been discussed very much by creamery men. I see that most of them 



