ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



the country, nor its far retching effects in building up and de- 

 veloping the highest type of agriculture. 



The improvement in the methods and plans of producing 

 milk, caring for cattle, housing and treating them, in the last 

 thirty-live years would read like some of the tales of the Arabian 

 Nights. In fact, this growth and developemnt has kept pace 

 and been somewhat in advance of development not only in com- 

 mercial and manufacturing lines, but also of agriculture in gen- 

 eral. 



It is about twenty years ago that I came from the East to 

 introduce at that time the new method of separating cream by 

 centrifugal force. If you will pardon the personal allusion, a 

 little experience in the neighboring town of Winnebago, in which 

 was placed the first centrifugal separator in your county, in the 

 factory then owned by Messrs. Mellen and Swan. They were 

 receiving from 15,000 to 20,000 pounds of milk per day, and 

 were raising the cream in open vats, making from two and one- 

 half to three and one-half pounds of butter per hundred pounds of 

 milk. The first day's skimming from the use of the separator 

 showed a result of nearly five pounds of butter, to the hundred 

 pounds of milk. The increase was so great, that Mellen and 

 Swan could hardly believe it. The second clay showed equally 

 as good results. This resulted in a telegraphic order for two 

 more separators to be shipped by express. The capacity of the 

 DeLaval separator at that time was about 600 pounds of milk 

 per hour. Today separators are made capable of handling from 

 3,000 to 5,000 pounds of milk per hour, with scarcely a trace of 

 the fat in the skim milk. This great improvement in the sep- 

 arator fully illustrates the improvements that have been made 

 from that time, illustrates what has been accomplished in devel- 

 oping and advancing machinery and methods in connection with 

 the dairy industry. 



In your own midst, in our city of Elgin, is an establishment, 

 known as the Elgin Board of Trade, the great price making fac- 

 tor for fancy creamery butter for the whole country. Estab- 

 lished over thirty years ago, it has grown and extended its mem- 



