FIFTY-THIRD ANNUAL CONVENTION 77 



going to become a dairy country after awhile. It is a mat- 

 ter of slow growth but it will come sure if you business 

 men keep on backing up the idea and co-operate with the 

 farmers of your country about here. Don't let any body 

 tell you at any time that there is danger of this dairy busi- 

 ness being overdone. There is no such danger. Here in 

 this country our per capita consumption of butter is seven- 

 teen pounds. In Canada it is twenty-eight pounds. Think 

 what that would mean if our per capita consumption was 

 worked up to the per capita consumptoin in Canada. What 

 an addition that would be with our one hundred and ten 

 millions of people. And besides that in figures that have 

 been recently come out from the Government, from the 

 Bureau of Dairying, at Washington, Dr. Larson, states that 

 it takes thirty-five million pounds additional every year to 

 take care of the natural increase of population, and you 

 have your Dairy Councils and your Health Boards that are 

 teaching the necessity of a milk diet, and you have got to 

 go mighty fast to catch up with all of that growth of con- 

 sumption of dairy products. We call this dairy business a 

 four billion dollar industry. None of us can comprehend 

 what a billion dollars is and four billion is away out of any- 

 body's conception. It is an immense business. It is growing 

 and it is going to grow in this country. Now we are mak- 

 ing about a billion three hundred pounds of creamery but- 

 ter and about six hundred million pounds of country butter 

 and creamery butter is increasing, but it is a fact that with 

 our big increase of production we have not increased a 

 pound since 1923. We made in 1924 about as we did in 

 1923 and about the same in 1925 and 1926 is going to run 

 a little less than 1925. So you can go on in perfect confi- 

 dence boosting this industry and you are not going to overdo 

 it. 



Now I just want to thank the business men here for 

 the way they have worked for this convention and the co- 

 operation they have given us on every need since I have 

 been here. I have met with the requests from the commit- 

 tee that if there is anything that we didn't get to let them 

 know. There has not been anything we have not had. We 



