80 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOC lATION. 



When the first creamery was opened it was anything but a 

 promising outlook for the projectors of the industry, as it was 

 only after earnest and repeated solicitations that the farmer 

 could be induced to even make the experiment of hauling their 

 milk to town. Many of whom had not more than one-eight 

 gallon can. By and by however, other farmers were induced to 

 make a trial of the new enterprise and in a short time all the 

 farmers in the surrounding community for five or six miles away 

 were hauling milk to the factory. 



It might be well to note right here that the creamery build- 

 ing shark never obtained a foothold here, and this may be one 

 reason why the business succeeded from the start as investment 

 was as a rule very limited. The new enterprise was very closely 

 watched by neighboring towns and surrounding communities, 

 and noticing the increased patronage bestowed upon the infant 

 industry, it was only a short time until the creameries began to 

 multiply and in the course of from one to three years every 

 village that made any pretensions to business had their 

 creamery, and in this way soon more creameries were estab- 

 lished than could be operated at a profit. However, very few 

 of the many creameries built in this immediate section of 

 Illinois were ever abandoned. Although no doubt a goodly 

 number have a hard struggle for existence. But on the whole 

 the average creamery is perhaps as profitable as other lines of 

 trade. 



Coming on down the line we may inquire, has dairying been 

 a profitable investment for the farmer and milk producer. 

 This of course can be answered in two ways, as we all know 

 too well that there are failures in all lines of business. Dairy- 

 ing in Southern Illinois is we claim no exception to this rule. 

 We will admit very many who are making a pretense of dairy- 

 ing are making no headway in the business and can not, while 

 it is conducted, as at present; failures in such instances must 

 be -attributed to bad managment rather than as a fault of the 

 business. 



It has however been our experience and we have made a 



