ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN S ASSOCIATION. II 



It would seem that the home market, which should be 

 the best of all markets, is largely if not wholly ignored by 

 our dairymen at the present time. 



It was claimed in 1876-7 that the consumption of 

 cheese in this country was fully four pounds per capita. 

 Were that so for 1878-9, our 47,000,000 people would 

 require about 188,000,000 pounds of cheese for home con- 

 sumption alone. But how is it now ? We estimate a falling 

 off of about twenty-five per cent, in the home consumption, 

 reducing the amount required from 188,000,000 to 141,- 

 000,000 pounds and leaving a surplus on our hands of about 

 47,000,000 pounds. Now this is an item in marketing that 

 nobody but the dairymen of this country has any power to 

 remedy. The American people too well appreciate the 

 nutritive qualities of good cheese, when taken into the 

 human system, to discard its use, if such cheese can be 

 readily obtained. 



Last winter a bill was drafted and presented to our 

 legislature, which passed the senate and came near passing 

 the house, to recognize the Illinois State Dairymen's Asso- 

 ciation as a state institution, with power to establish and 

 maintain an experimental dairy station somewhere in the 

 state. One of the objects of such a station would be to 

 examine, and recommend the raising, the best and most 

 profitable breeds of cows for the dairy of Illinois. The 

 United State census of 1870 gives lUinois 640,321 cows. It 

 is now computed that the state has at the present time 

 between 800,000 and i ,000,000. The estimated average life 

 of a cow in the dairy is about six years. This holding true, 

 it will call for the annual rearing of about 1 50,000 to fill 

 the vacant places of valueless cows in the state of Illinois 

 alone. This being correct, it behooves us as citizens, and 

 especially as dairymen of Illinois, to look well to this matter 

 of breeds for the dairy. Prof. Johnson tells us of a breed 

 of cows that required nine pounds of hay to produce one 

 quart of milk, and of another breed which required only 

 five pounds. Now if this be true (and we have but little 

 doubt of it from our own observation),would any gentleman 

 within the sound of my voice hesitate for a moment, all 

 other things being equal, which breed to select his cows for 

 the dairy from ? This is only one item of the use of such 

 a station ; although a very important one, perhaps not the 

 most essential one to the dairyman. The fact that our 



