QQ ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN S ASSOCIATION. 



Probably there will be little dissent from the suggestion that 

 those who have not been largely engaged in dairying, and commu- 

 nities in which other branches of farming have long been pursued, 

 should make the change into dairying only with care and slowly ; 

 that it will rarely be wise to at once get all the farms in grass, and as 

 soon as possible fully stock them with cows. But I advise this con- 

 tinuance of former work, not as a temporary course, while a trial is 

 being made, and such farmers are learning a new business, but as a 

 permanent policy in regions in which stock rearing and feeding has 

 proved profitable in the past, and where skill and some reputation 

 has been acquired and good facilities for such farming accumulated, 

 I cannot count it wise to look forward to abandoning this, except in 

 special cases. 



For years I have counted it one of the most important helps to 

 continued prosperity for our cheese-producing interest, that more at- 

 tention be paid to developing and supplying, in the best possible 

 way, the home demand for cheese. Over a very large part of Illinois 

 I see no good reason why each county should not produce at least as 

 much cheese as its population consumes ; why one or two or three 

 factories should not be mainly engaged in making cheese for the local 

 markets. With the direct sales which could thus be made, certainly 

 as good net prices should be obtained, and it ought to be easier to 

 obtain a local reputation than to successfully compete with the whole 

 country. And so I should be glad to see new cheese factories in 

 many counties of the state ; not great, costly buildings and arrange- 

 ments for using the milk of 1,000 cows, but neat, cheap, economically 

 managed factories, the milk for which should be largely furnished by 

 neighboring farmers, into whose minds might never come the thought 

 of exclusive dairying, but who should find it payed them well to 

 keep anywhere from half a dozen to two score good cows, well cared 

 for, the milk from which, or a part of which, should be daily carried 

 to the factory by the team of the factory ovvners, or some neighbor 

 living further from the factory, while the farmers go on with their 

 " general farm work." 



If it seems that I have understated the advantages of the dairy 

 as an exclusive reliance for the farmer, I may make partial amends 

 by magnifying its importance as a help to profitable farming by those 

 who will continue to make some other branches their chief reliances. 

 So long as the custom continues of making almost all American 

 cheese after one general model, it is to be expected the factory sys- 

 tem will practically abolish farm making of cheese ; but this will not 



