ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 135 



ADDRESS. 



BY R. A. PEARSON, 



ASSISTANT CHIEF OF THE DAIRY DIVISION, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF 



AGRICULTURE, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 



It is with a feeling of pleasure and honor that I stand here 

 to-night, as the representative of the Dairy Division of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture, at the meeting of the 

 Illinois State Dairymen's Association. You well know that our 

 Secretary of Agriculture the Hon. James Wilson, and the chief 

 of the Dairy Division, Major H. E. Alvord, and a great many 

 workers in the department are heartily interested in this dairy 

 industry. Major Alvord has been attending a number of dairy- 

 men's conventions recently and it was with regret that he had to 

 give up coming out here. Your worthy secretary, Mr. Monrad, 

 has represented the division at a number of meetings in the 

 Western States in the past few weeks, but being engaged as he 

 would be at this meeting, it was thought best to send some one 

 to take his place to tell you something of the work of the Dairy 

 Division. The understanding was that when I came out here to 

 your meeting if I found anybody who knew any less about 

 dairying than I did I was toteach him something, and if I found 

 anybody who knew anything more than I did, I was to learn 

 something. It is quite unnecessary to say that I have not been 

 teaching. I have been learning ever since I came out here. 



The Dairy Division was created about two years ago; thus 

 far we have issued seventeen publications, probably many of you 

 have seen more or less of those publications. There is one 

 quite full of statistics of the dairy, giving the number of cows in 

 each state of the United States and the amount of butter and 



