ILLIKOIS STATE DAIEYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 41 



Topic No. 10 was again resumed, when G. P. Loed, Esq., 

 of Elgin, read the following paper: 



G. P. LORD'S PAPER. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention :—" How 

 shall we improve the dairy interest of Illinois ? " 



The importance of this question will be felt if we consider the vast 

 amount of money invested in the dairy business. We have no statistics 

 showing the amount invested in the State of Illinois. 



It has been stated that there are 1,022 butter and cheese factories, 460,000 

 cows, and 1,380,000 acres of land in the State of Kew York devoted to this 

 interest. 



If the factories are estimated at $5,000 each, the -cows at $40 per head, 

 and the land at $60 per acre, then we have a total sum of $92,720,000 invested 

 by the dairymen of ]Srew York. If to this we add the value of the horses, 

 wagons, agricultural implements, etc., required for the prosecution of this 

 branch of industry, we shall find it will amount to at least $100,000,000, 

 which is invested in dairying in the State of New York. Adding to this 

 the amount invested in the States of Ohio, Illinois and Wisconsin, and we 

 find a capital of nearly if not quite $200,000,000 used in the dairy business in 

 these four States, a fair proportion of which is invested in the State of 

 Illinois. 



How best to advance the interest of this branch of industry in this State 

 is now under consideration. We shall be better prepared to devise means 

 for advancing the dairy interest if we take a view of the obstacles and dif- 

 ficulties to be overcome. 



One of these is the labor and expense of marketing the milk. This has 

 to be done in seed time and harvest, mid rain and shine. If we take the 

 average distance traveled by the dairymen in taking milk to the factory at 

 three miles, we find that in the three hundred working days in a year he has 

 traveled 1,800 miles, which is equal to sixty days' travel of thirty miles per 

 day. Valuing this time, at three dollars per day— the lowest price paid for 

 man and team — and we find it has cost him in labor one hundred and eighty 

 dollars per year to market his milk. To this must be added the cost of 

 manufacturing and selling the product of the milk. The present charge for 

 manufacturing and selling cheese is understood to be 2i cents per pound. 

 If we take the average product of the dairymen at six cans of milk per day, 

 and allowing that each gallon of milk produces one pound of cheese, we 

 shall find that it has cost $438 to manufacture and sell the cheese. Kow 

 taking these two items, the average annual expense in labor and money 

 to each dairyman is $618. This with the interest at ten per cent, would in 

 ten years amount to $9,000. Now if a dairy business be prosecuted on one 

 farm by father and son for the space of forty years, the savings of these 

 two items, with the interest at ten per cent., if treated as bankers treat their 

 capital, would amount to over $200,000, which of itself would be a very 

 6 



