137 



workers, cream and milk cans, jars, separators, engines, 

 feed cutters and feed grinders, horse-powers, dairy salts 

 and sacks for same, butter color and the numerous em- 

 ployments requiring invested capital, occasioned by the 

 dairy interests. To raise grain and hay, milk and care 

 for 865,913 cows, gathering milk and cream, hauling to 

 factories and manufacturing into butter and cheese, 

 hauling to market by teams and railroads, handling, 

 selling and peddling milk in cities, thereby giving em- 

 ployment to thousands of people, makes it one of if not 

 the first agricultural industry in the State. 



Considering the enormous investment of capital in 

 the business, the question naturally arises, whether the 

 income is such as to make it a profitable one. Accord- 

 ing to the United States census of 1880, the production 

 of butter in the State made by dairy process was 

 53,657,943 pounds, by factory process 2,414,658. The 

 amount of cheese by dairy process was 1,035,069 pounds. 

 Amount made by factories was 4,997,286 pounds. Made 

 by combined butter and skim cheese factories, butter, 

 4,136,361 pounds, skim cheese, 15,240,839 pounds and 

 condensed milk 3,645,408 pounds, or a total of 60,208- 

 912 pounds butter and 21,273,183 pounds of cheese; 

 besides there were produced and sold or sent to butter 

 and cheese factories 45,410,719 pounds milk. 



The total amount of butter produced amounted to 

 69 lbs. and a fraction per cow. The amount of cheese 

 made, exclusive of skim-milk cheese, amounted to about 

 seven pounds per cow. Estimating the total dairy 

 product at an equivalent of 125 lbs. of butter per cow 

 and butter at 16 cents per pound, we have $20 as the 

 average product per cow of the cows of Illinois for 

 that year. Every dairyman present knows that a cow 

 can not be kept a year, even in an ordinary condition, for 



