10 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN S ASSOCIATION. 



have been so frequently and graphically presented and dis- 

 cussed by others, at former meetings, that any attempt on 

 my part to engage in the same could but be extremely irk- 

 some to you. 



The year just passed has been one replete with fluctu- 

 ations in the market price of dairy products. Butter and 

 cheese have not only been very low in our markets, but 

 have been unprecedently low in the European markets. 

 We thought we had good reason for believing this would 

 be the case in the early part of the present season, when 

 we saw the great amount of poor butter and cheese in the 

 commission houses, in cold storage, and piled upon the 

 wharfs in the city of New York, last fall. To clear this 

 market we expected much, yea, most, of this cheese would 

 have to be dumped int© the Atlantic ocean, to feed the 

 dolphin and sea serpent. But, luckily, some of it was 

 shipped to England, where it is said to have been used to 

 feed swine and where it sold for nearly or quite enough to 

 pay transportation. 



We have simply invited your attention to the above 

 for the purpose of showing in a measure the cause of the 

 depression in the markets in the fore part of the present 

 season. In our judgment this was largely due to our hold- 

 ing and placing too much poor cheese in the hands of the 

 commission merchants during the warm weather of last 

 year. 



This season the dairymen have taken a different course, 

 and we have no flooded markets this fall, although the pro- 

 duction of cheese has been quite equal, if not in excess of, 

 that of last year in our country. Had our cheese of last 

 season been in quality such as to bear transportation to 

 South America, we venture to say it could all have been 

 sold at fair, remunerative prices, along as it was ready for 

 market. Our exportation of butter to that climate is already 

 very large, why should it not be so with our cheese ? We 

 answer — Simply because we do not take care to make a 

 cheese to suit that market. If we desire to sell our dairy 

 products we must cater to the wishes of the consumers, to 

 a certain extent, at least. 



The consumption of this article of food for man has 

 largely diminished in our own country within the last two 

 or three years ; and why so ? Simply because but very 

 little good cheese is to be found in the market places. 



